Daily Archives: 21 October, 2016

Less blue light emission for our cities. This is the aim of almost 30 cities around the United States, following the tips of the American Medical Association against the use of powerful LED lights. We are talking about Phoenix, Lake Worth (Florida) and several cities in Connecticut. They want to reduce the harmful human and environmental effects of high intensity street lighting. The association suggested that LED lights with color temperatures higher than 3000 Kelvin had adverse effects on health, including eye damage and disrupted sleep patterns. The warning was aimed at large cities, where the standard color temperature for LED street lights is 5000K to 6000K. Lights with high color […]

Winter driving offers special challenges. Remember these safe driving tips from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Industrial Hygiene Association.
The American Industrial Hygiene Association wants you to refresh your safety basics. The following practical safety travel tips are provided by AIHA from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC):
Avoid travel, especially in the car, when a weather advisory has been issued. However, if travel is necessary, keep family members informed of your travel plans and estimated arrival.
Always carry a mobile phone with a fully charged battery in case of emergency.
Winterize your car. Perform routine maintenance to be sure that your car is in good operating condition. Check your tires and replace them with all-weather or snow tires if necessary. Keeping your gas tank full may help prevent ice build-up in your car’s fuel lines. Add a wintertime formula in your windshield washer.
Always have an emergency kit in your car, especially during the holiday travel season. Your emergency kit should include: a first aid kit, blankets, “ready to eat” food and water; booster cables, tire jack, spare tire, tire pump, flares and a bag of sand for traction; flashlight, compass and maps; and a battery-powered radio and extra batteries.
If you become stranded with your vehicle, remember these safety tips:
If you are unable to move to a safe location within 100 yards, stay with your vehicle.
Alert other drivers of your condition by remaining as visible as possible. Tying a bright cloth to the antenna, raising the hood of the car and turning on the interior lights will signal other drivers.
Maintain the vehicle’s battery power by running the engine and heater for only 10 minutes every hour. For proper ventilation inside the vehicle, make sure the tailpipe is not blocked by snow or ice.
Regardless of the season, you should always avoid drinking and driving, and don’t let someone else drink and drive. Whether you’re the driver or passenger, wear a seatbelt and be sure that all children are secured in a child seat.
More travel safety tips from the CDC.
AIHA Offers Tips for Safe Holiday Travelhttp://ehstoday.com/safety/aiha-offers-tips-safe-holiday-travelhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

OSHA wants SeaWorld of Florida LLC to comply with administrative subpoenas that require SeaWorld to provide three managers to be interviewed during OSHA’s follow-up abatement inspection. The follow-up inspection is being conducted as a result of previous violations that OSHA identified after a February 2010 drowning of a trainer who was grabbed and pulled under the water by a six-ton killer whale during what SeaWorld described as a “relationship session.”
In August 2010, OSHA issued SeaWorld citations related to the incident. SeaWorld contested OSHA’s proposed violations and penalties. SeaWorld has declined to provide personnel to answer questions regarding abatement or correction of a prior violation related to trainers’ exposure to struck-by and drowning hazards when engaged in performances with killer whales.
“The employee testimony for the follow-up abatement inspection, required by a subpoena, allows OSHA inspectors to determine if SeaWorld employees continue to be exposed to unsafe and unhealthy working conditions,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health Dr. David Michaels. “Abating safety and health hazards in the workplace needs to be as important to an employer as recognizing the hazards in the first place.”
A trial was held by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, and in June, an administrative law judge upheld OSHA’s citations against SeaWorld. Subsequently, SeaWorld was required to abate cited hazards, including those specifically related to trainers working in proximity to the killer whales. However, since the order went into effect, SeaWorld has filed a petition with the review commission seeking additional time to abate the violation regarding trainers’ interaction with killer whales. SeaWorld maintains that the petition, which is pending resolution, should restrict the scope of OSHA’s follow-up inspection.
The enforcement action has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle of Florida, Orlando Division by the department’s Atlanta Regional Solicitor’s Office.
OSHA Goes Fishing at SeaWorld, Wants Managers for Interviewshttp://ehstoday.com/osha/osha-goes-fishing-seaworld-wants-managers-interviewshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Baxter is one of a new generation of robots. Called “cage-free” or “industrial partner” or even “inherently safe” robots, these new tools are fundamentally altering our notions of what industrial robots are and what they can do.
Baxter might be the perfect employee.
He is conscious of his environment, and takes utmost care not to hurt his fellow workers. He is adaptable, amiable and a lighting-fast learner. Best of all, he works tirelessly across multiple shifts – all day if necessary – without breaks, without food and without complaint.
Baxter, of course, is the latest in a new kind of industrial robot that has been popping up on small and midsized manufacturing lines across Europe these last couple of years and, more recently, trickling into the U.S. scene.
Called “cage-free” or “industrial partner” or even “inherently safe” robots, these new tools are fundamentally altering our notions of what industrial robots are and what they can do.
From their easy programming and expanded flexibility to their comparably low cost and decreased footprint, Mitch Rosenberg, vice president of marketing and product management at Rethink Robotics – Baxter’s Boston-based manufacturer – has an endless list of features that have made these robots so notable in the industry of late.
But the key feature holding them all together and driving this emerging market, he said, is safety.
“We are seeing increased interest in robots that can work safely alongside humans without safety barriers,” Rosenberg explained. The appeal, of course, is that “robots working shoulder to shoulder with people don’t require manufacturers to completely rework their workspaces or manufacturing processes.”
Unlike traditional caged robots, he said, these robots simply can be added to the existing manufacturing line with very little process redesign. This increases the overall flexibility of the robot while reducing risks as compared to accommodating traditional robotic tools.
Add to that the low investment costs they carry and that “inherently safe” label Rosenberg uses to describe them and these new machines seem destined for a record fast market takeover.
However, very few companies – most notably Rethink Robots and Universal Robots – have ventured into this ripe field. The rest in the industry are stymied by that same prickly issue that makes the technology so attractive for U.S. users: safety.
Setting the Safety Standard for Cage-Free Robotshttp://ehstoday.com/safety/setting-safety-standard-cage-free-robotshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Guest blogger Aaron Morrow shares his holiday wish for a season of safety through this special rewrite of “The Night Before Christmas.”
‘Twas the Day Before Christmas
’Twas the day before Christmas, when all through the site
The workers were framing the metal studs nice and tight.
The drywall was hung by the crew with great care,
Knowing the painting crew would soon be there.
The supervisors and foremen were going over the plan,
Hoping to finish by the day’s end if they can.
The safety team is wearing ANSI-approved glasses, shoes and hard hats,
Reviewing the daily checklists for the excavators, forklifts and bobcats.
When up on the third level there arose such a clatter;
What was that, I asked, some tools, materials, maybe a ladder?
Towards the temporary stairs we quickly and safely walked,
But someone left a scissor lift in the way so the access was blocked.
Just then the service elevator opened its doors;
We all loaded in, without going over capacity, and went up the two floors.
When what to our surprised but protected eyes should appear,
An apprentice standing next to a boom lift wearing his fall protection gear.
Around his feet lay a pile of scaffold cross braces;
The young worker knew we were concerned by the look on our faces.
We made sure he was OK, and asked him to give us the incident info;
Apparently he was installing A/C ducting and didn’t see the materials below.
We breathed a sigh of relief and helped clean up the mess,
Realizing we had some housekeeping issues around the jobsite to address.
Our goal is to learn from a fortunate incident like this,
So we filled out a report to document the near miss.
We gathered the workers and conducted a tailgate,
And pointed out the multiple hazards we needed to abate.
So we swept and scooped, and even used the shop-vacuum,
And the extra materials were moved to the lay down yard creating more room.
The workers all gathered after the cleanup was complete;
We all were impressed how the job looked organized and neat.
We talked about how we didn’t want these issues to become a trend;
By this time the shift had almost come to an end.
We thanked the crew and let them leave early without much of a fight,
And said:
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”
(Some things you just don’t change.)
Happy Holidays,
Aaron Morrow
’Twas the Day Before Christmashttp://ehstoday.com/blog/twas-day-christmashttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Those long, hectic work hours in the hospital may help medical residents train for their careers as doctors, but such schedules may also put them at a greater risk of being in a car crash. A poll of 300 Mayo Clinic residents reveals that 11 percent of respondents had been involved in a traffic accident after work, while 43 percent reported “narrowly avoiding” an accident.
The respondents attributed the traffic incidents to fatigue and distress, including feelings of burnout or depression.
“Just like any other field, residents need their recovery time. In order to make good decisions, physicians need to be physically and emotionally well,” said lead author Colin West, M.D., Ph.D., an internal medicine physician at Mayo Clinic. “Residents need to be rested. We don’t want them to have undue amounts of stress.”
It is well documented that medical residents often work long and grueling hours during their 3-year residencies. While intense work schedules help prepare residents to become independent doctors, West stressed it’s important that educators continually update their approach to retain the value of the training while minimizing stress and fatigue.
“The mere fact that motor vehicle incidents are common among residents brings the issues of resident fatigue, sleepiness and distress to a new level of priority,” West explained. “New interventions designed to address both resident fatigue and distress may be needed to promote patient and resident safety.”
Participants completed surveys quarterly from July 1, 2007, through July 31, 2011, during their training period. The study was funded by the Mayo Clinic Department of Medicine Program on Physician Wellbeing and was published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Tired Medical Residents More Likely to Be Involved in Car Crasheshttp://ehstoday.com/health/tired-medical-residents-more-likely-be-involved-car-crasheshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

NFPA and USFA Team Up to Put a Freeze on Winter FiresMore fires occur in December, January and February
December 6, 2012 – While a warm home and a hot meal on a cold winter’s day may conjure up thoughts of safety and security, the unfortunate reality is that winter is the leading time of year for home fires in the United States (U.S.). That’s why the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) have teamed up to help prevent home fires in the winter months.
Through a jointly sponsored initiative – Put a Freeze on Winter Fires – NFPA and USFA are working collaboratively to tell the public about ways to stay fire-safe this winter. The effort targets home heating and cooking, which represent the two leading causes of U.S. home fires. Both types of fires peak in the winter months.
“As temperatures drop, the public’s risk to fire increases, so we want to make sure we’re doing all we can to minimize that risk,” said NFPA President Jim Shannon. “Fortunately, home heating and cooking fires are largely preventable with some basic guidelines in mind.”
Video: NFPA’s Vice President of Communications, Lorraine Carli, gives some tips to help prevent winter fires.
According to a recent NFPA report, heating equipment was involved in an estimated 57,100 reported U.S. home structure fires, with associated losses of 490 civilian deaths, 1,530 civilian injuries, and $1.1 billion in direct property damage in 2010. As in previous years, space heaters account for about one third of home heating fires and approximately 80 percent of associated fire deaths.
The USFA’s report, Winter Residential Building Fires, shows that winter home fires occur mainly in the early evening hours, peaking from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The United States Fire Administrator Ernie Mitchell advises, “It is important to know about the risks of fires from cooking, heating, holiday decorations, and using the fireplace. It will take all of our efforts to learn and practice fire safety during the winter months. And, the fire service is there to help us Put a Freeze on Winter Fires.”
NFPA and USFA recommend these safety tips to prevent winter home fires:
For more information about Put a Freeze on Winter Fires and tips for staying safe all winter long, visit USFA and NFPA.
About the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) As an entity of the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency, the mission of the USFA is to provide national leadership to foster a solid foundation for our fire and emergency services stakeholders in prevention, preparedness, and response
About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)NFPA is a worldwide leader in fire, electrical, building, and life safety. The mission of the international nonprofit organization founded in 1896 is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. NFPA develops more than 300 codes and standards to minimize the possibility and effects of fire and other hazards. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed at no cost at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
Contact: Lorraine Carli, Public Affairs Office: +1 617 984-7275
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NFPA urges the public to stay warm and safe this winter December, January, February peak months for heating fires
December 10, 2012 – As temperatures continue to drop in the months ahead, the risk of home heating fires peaks. In fact, December, January and February are the leading months for home fires, when half of all home heating fires occur.
“The use of heating equipment largely contributes to the peak in U.S. home fires during the winter months,” said Lorraine Carli, vice president of communications at the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
Video: “Hot Flashes” features cartoon character Dan Doofus learning some important lessons about home heating.
According to NFPA’s most recent report, “Home Fires Involving Heating Equipment,” home heating equipment was involved in an estimated 57,100 reported home structure fires, 490 civilian deaths, 1,530 civilian injuries, and $1.1 billion in direct property damage in 2010.
Stationary and portable space heaters accounted for one-third (32 percent) of reported home heating fires, but 80 percent of the home heating fire deaths, two-thirds (67 percent) of associated civilian injuries, and half (52 percent) of associated direct property damage.
“Space heaters clearly present the greatest risk of home heating fires,” said Carli. “No matter what type of heating system people may use, we can all reduce our risk by taking simple safety precautions.”
Below are NFPA’s tips for safely heating your home this winter:
All heaters need space. Keep anything that can burn at least three feet away from heating equipment, like the furnace, fireplace, wood stove, or portable space heater.
Have a three-foot “kid-free zone” around open fires and space heaters.
Never use your oven to heat your home.
Have a qualified professional install stationary space heating equipment, water heaters or central heating equipment according to the local codes and manufacturer’s instructions.
Have heating equipment and chimneys inspected and cleaned each year by a qualified professional.
Remember to turn portable heaters off when leaving the room or going to bed.
Always use the right kind of fuel, specified by the manufacturer, for fuel-burning space heaters.
Make sure the fireplace has a sturdy screen to stop sparks from flying into the room. Ashes should be cool before putting them in a metal container. Keep the container a safe distance away from your home.
Test all smoke alarms monthly and replace the batteries once a year, or when they begin to chirp, which means the batteries are running low.
Install carbon monoxide (CO) alarms outside each sleeping area and on every level of the home. Test the alarms monthly.
About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)NFPA is a worldwide leader in fire, electrical, building, and life safety. The mission of the international nonprofit organization founded in 1896 is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. NFPA develops more than 300 codes and standards to minimize the possibility and effects of fire and other hazards. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed at no cost at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
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Contact: Lorraine Carli, Public Affairs Office: +1 617 984-7275
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Sharpen your fire safety smarts this season NFPA and Sparky the Fire Dog offer information to help reduce holiday fire risks
December 12, 2012 – How many strands of mini string lights can you safely connect? How many inches should you cut from the base of a fresh-cut Christmas tree before placing it in water? Not really sure? Then it’s time to sharpen your holiday fire safety smarts with information and resources from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
“Many people simply don’t know which activities and practices present hazards,” said Lorraine Carli, NFPA’s vice president of communications. “‘Project Holiday’ points out where holiday fire risks lurk, along with a wealth of tips and guidelines to prevent them.”
Video: NFPA’s Lorraine Carli has a few quick safety tips to consider before you decorate your home for the holidays.
Across the board, the majority of holiday fires are the result of human error.
The holiday season is a time when there is an increased risk of home fires. NFPA is offering resources to help increase public awareness about fire risks during the holiday season, “Project Holiday” features a quiz that checks just how prepared you really are for a fire-safe season. The site also includes free, online videos and downloadable materials to help parents protect their families, particularly those with young children, who are at greater risk to fires. In addition, an online toolkit is available with campaign materials that can be used to spread the word about fire safety throughout the community.
Sparky the Fire Dog is also pitching in with holiday-themed fire-safety materials for parents and educators on his website, including downloadable coloring and activity sheets and e-cards.
According to NFPA, many holiday traditions and festivities – from candle decorations and cooking to Christmas trees and holiday lighting – significantly contribute to the season’s increased risks:
December is the peak month for home candle fires. Almost half of all home decoration fires were started by candles.
Although Christmas tree fires aren’t common, when they do occur, they’re more likely to be serious.
A heat source too close to the tree causes roughly one in five associated fires, with one of every three home Christmas tree fires caused by electrical problems.
Almost half of all holiday lighting fires occur in December. Electrical failures or malfunctions were a factor in two-thirds (69 percent) of these fires.
Cooking is the leading cause of home fires; unattended cooking is the leading cause.
To learn more about “Project Holiday” and its tips for a fire-safe season, visit www.nfpa.org/holiday.
About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)NFPA is a worldwide leader in fire, electrical, building, and life safety. The mission of the international nonprofit organization founded in 1896 is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. NFPA develops more than 300 codes and standards to minimize the possibility and effects of fire and other hazards. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed at no cost at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
Subscribe to NFPA RSS News feeds
Contact: Lorraine Carli, Public Affairs Office: +1 617 984-7275
Sharpen your fire safety smarts this seasonhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nfpanewsreleases/~3/PlU9pHuwSiY/newsReleaseDetails.asphttp://feeds.feedburner.com/nfpanewsreleases?format=xmlNFPA news releasesThe latest news releases from NFPA, National Fire Protection Associationhttp://www.mywebsite.com/rss-image.gif

Learn Not To Burn Again NFPA has revised and updated its award-winning preschool program, Learn Not to Burn,
to continue keeping young children safe from fire
December 13, 2012 – National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recently updated its award-winning Learn Not to Burn (LNTB) preschool program, which teaches young children about fire safety
Updates to LNTB feature revised teacher lesson plans and parent/caregiver home link activities. Also, the program’s songs, which were originally recorded by Jim Post, now include singer and musician, Dante Ware, who’s joined Jim in singing and performing many of the songs.
“The music is still as fun and engaging as it has always been, but has an updated feel that connects with children,” said Sharon Gamache, NFPA’s program director of Public Education.
For more than 40 years, LNTB has introduced the basics of fire safety to children, with a focus on positive, empowering messages. Those core elements will remain the same.
“Because children ages five and under are among those at greatest risk to fire, it’s critical to teach them how to identify risks and protect themselves,” said Gamache. “Kids are also wonderful ambassadors of information and do a great job of bringing home the fire safety messages they’ve learned, which can make a significant impact on entire households.”
Primarily taught in schools, LNTB’s program lessons are most appropriate for four- and five-year-olds, but can be used for Kindergarten children, too.
Released one at a time, the updated LNTB lesson plans and songs will be free to download on NFPA’s website. For more information about LNTB and other public safety initiatives, visit www.nfpa.org/education.
About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)NFPA is a worldwide leader in fire, electrical, building, and life safety. The mission of the international nonprofit organization founded in 1896 is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. NFPA develops more than 300 codes and standards to minimize the possibility and effects of fire and other hazards. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed at no cost at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
Contact: Lorraine Carli, Public Affairs Office: +1 617 984-7275
Learn Not To Burn Againhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nfpanewsreleases/~3/fx6ouAN5gs8/newsReleaseDetails.asphttp://feeds.feedburner.com/nfpanewsreleases?format=xmlNFPA news releasesThe latest news releases from NFPA, National Fire Protection Associationhttp://www.mywebsite.com/rss-image.gif

Christmas trees and holiday lighting present post-holiday fire hazards NFPA reminds the public to properly store and dispose of seasonal decorations
December 20, 2012 – While the winter months are the leading time of year for home fires, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) says the post-holiday season presents its own set of fire hazards. Dried out Christmas trees and holiday lighting are among the leading culprits.
“As time goes by, Christmas trees continue to dry out and become increasingly flammable,” said Lorraine Carli, vice president of Communications for NFPA. “For trees decorated with holiday lights, the risk increases because they’re in direct contact with an electrical source.”
Although Christmas tree fires are not common, when they do occur, they have a higher chance of being deadly. On average, one of every 66 reported home structure Christmas tree fires resulted in a death compared to an average of one death per 144 total home structure fires.
Video: A demonstration created by NFPA and Underwriters Laboratories (UL) underscores just how quickly a dried-out Christmas tree fire can grow and spread.
According to Carli, you can tell when the tree is drying out by the number of needles that drop each day. “Once you start to see more fall, the tree is no longer fresh, and it’s time to get rid of it.”
Dried trees should not be kept in the home, garage, or placed outside against the home. Check with your local community to find a recycling program.
In 2006 to 2010, holiday lights and other decorative lighting were involved in an annual average of 160 home fires, 9 civilian deaths, 13 related injuries, and $9 million in direct property damage. To reduce the risk of holiday light fires and keep equipment in good condition for next year, follow these storage suggestions:
To unplug electric decorations, use the gripping area provided on the plugs. Never pull the cord to unplug a device from electrical outlets. Doing so can harm the cord’s wire and insulation and even lead to an electrical shock or fire.
As you’re putting away electrical light strings, take time to inspect each for damage. Throw out light sets if they have loose connections, broken sockets or cracked or bare wires.
Do not place a damaged set of lights back into the storage box for next year’s use.
Wrap each set of lights and put them in individual plastic bags, or wrap the lights around a piece of cardboard.
Store electrical decorations in a dry place where they cannot be damaged by water or dampness. Also, keep them away from children and pets.
NFPA and the U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) have teamed up again to remind everyone about ways to keep warm and safe throughout the winter months. Their joint safety campaign, “Put a Freeze on Winter Fires,” includes a wealth of heating, cooking and holiday fire safety tips.
About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)NFPA is a worldwide leader in fire, electrical, building, and life safety. The mission of the international nonprofit organization founded in 1896 is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. NFPA develops more than 300 codes and standards to minimize the possibility and effects of fire and other hazards. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed at no cost at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
Subscribe to NFPA RSS News feeds
Contact: Lorraine Carli, Public Affairs Office: +1 617 984-7275
Christmas trees and holiday lighting present post-holiday fire hazardshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nfpanewsreleases/~3/CipumblLuFI/newsReleaseDetails.asphttp://feeds.feedburner.com/nfpanewsreleases?format=xmlNFPA news releasesThe latest news releases from NFPA, National Fire Protection Associationhttp://www.mywebsite.com/rss-image.gif

The short, dark days of winter can be a big downer for many people who experience seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, during the coldest part of the year. SAD affects up to 20 percent of Americans and prompts symptoms including moodiness, loss of energy, overeating, social withdrawal, difficult concentrating and not getting enough sleep.
SAD is caused by a combination of decreased serotonin and increased amounts of melatonin. Sunlight enters the brain through the eyes, stimulating the production of the neurotransmitter serotonin that supports nerve cell functioning, including mood. Less light results in lower serotonin levels, while darkness stimulates the production of melatonin, which promotes sleep. This combination causes SAD.
While many people experience some elements of SAD, Mayo Clinic psychiatrist Mark Frye, M.D., suggests seeking professional help if your symptoms begin to affect your ability to perform at work or take a toll on your personal relationships. Seeking help is particularly important if you begin to feel hopeless or have thoughts of self-harm, he added.
Frye offers the following tips to keep your mood and motivation steady throughout the winter:
Get outside. There is no substitute for natural light. If you work during the day, try to go for a walk during a break or lunch.
Brighten your day. Light therapy boxes can help boost your mood when you’re unable to get outdoors.
Work it out. Get regular exercise, at least three times a week for 30 minutes, to combat those depressed feelings.
Stay social. Interact with family and friends regularly.
“There are many people who experience winter blues. However, there are those who are experiencing more serious symptoms,” explained William Weggel, M.D., a Mayo Clinic Health System psychiatrist. “The good news is that in most cases, we are able to find a treatment plan to help the patient through the winter months.”
Tips for Battling Seasonal Affective Disorderhttp://ehstoday.com/health/tips-battling-seasonal-affective-disorderhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

The widespread adoption of electronic medical records and other digital technologies in the health care sector might lower costs and reduce errors, but it also may come with a hidden risk: increased musculoskeletal injuries among doctors and nurses. In two new researcher papers, a Cornell University ergonomics professor argues that poor office layouts and improper use of computer devices may result in repetitive strain injuries among doctors and nurses.
“Many hospitals are investing heavily in new technology with almost no consideration for principles of ergonomics design for computer workplaces,” said Alan Hedge, professor of human factors and ergonomics in Cornell’s College of Human Ecology’s Department of Design and Environmental Analysis. “We saw a similar pattern starting in the 1980s when commercial workplaces computerized, and there was an explosion of musculoskeletal injuries for more than a decade afterward.”
As part of his research, Hedge asked 179 physicians about the frequency and severity of their musculoskeletal discomfort, computer use in their clinic, knowledge of ergonomics and typing skills. The most commonly reported repetitive strain injuries were neck, shoulder and upper and lower back pain, with a majority of female doctors and more than 40 percent of male doctors reporting such ailments on at least a weekly basis. About 40 percent of women and 30 percent of men reported right wrist injuries at a similar frequency.
“These rates are alarming. When more than 40 percent of employees are complaining about regular problems, that’s a sign something needs to be done to address it,” said Hedge. “In a lot of hospitals and medical offices, workplace safety focuses on preventing slips, trips and falls and on patient handling, but the effects of computer use on the human body are neglected.”
The gender differences, the authors wrote, appear to be in part because women reported spending about an hour longer on the computer per day than men.
In a second study of 180 physicians and 63 nurse practitioners and physician assistants in the same health system, more than 90 percent of respondents reported using a desktop computer at work. On average, they spent more than five hours per day using computers.
Fifty-six percent of doctors and 71 percent of nurse practitioners and physician assistants said their computer use at work had increased in the past year; 22 percent of doctors and 19 percent of nurse practitioners and physician assistants reported less time in face-to-face interactions with patients. Only about 5 percent of participants reported an “expert knowledge” of ergonomics, and more than two-thirds said they had no input in the planning or design of their computer or clinical workstation.
“We can’t assume that just because people are doctors or work in health care that they know about ergonomics,” Hedge said. “With so many potential negative effects for doctors and patients, it is critical that the implementation of new technology is considered from a design and ergonomics perspective.”
Health Care Workers Face Ergonomic Challengeshttp://ehstoday.com/health/health-care-workers-face-ergonomic-challengeshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

It’s the day after Christmas and I’m sitting in an almost-empty office, waiting for the blizzard that has been forecast to hit Cleveland even though there’s still not a flake in sight. I’m also gazing at the banana I brought for breakfast and wishing I could eat more Christmas cookies instead. According to experts, the holiday may have messed up my body’s “food clock.” I believe it.
When we overeat at the holidays, we apparently share something in common with people who work the graveyard shift, people who are jetlagged and late-night snackers: the internal clocks in our bodies are thrown out of whack.
According to researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), the food clock helps our bodies make the most of our nutritional intake. It controls genes that help in everything from the absorption of nutrients in our digestive tract to their dispersal through the bloodstream, and it is designed to anticipate our eating patterns. Even before we eat a meal, our bodies begin to turn on some of these genes and turn off others, preparing for the burst of sustenance – which is why we feel the pangs of hunger just as the lunch hour arrives.
Scientist have known that the food clock can be reset over time if an organism changes its eating patterns, eating to excess or at odd times, since the timing of the food clock is pegged to feeding during the prime foraging and hunting hours in the day. But until now, very little was known about how the food clock works on a genetic level. In a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, UCSF researchers has shown that a protein called PKCγ is critical in resetting the food clock if our eating habits change.
The work has implications for understanding the molecular basis of diabetes, obesity and other metabolic syndromes because a desynchronized food clock may serve as part of the pathology underlying these disorders. It might also have implications for shift workers whose circadian rhythms are upset by working the graveyard shift.
“Understanding the molecular mechanism of how eating at the ‘wrong’ time of the day desynchronizes the clocks in our body can facilitate the development of better treatments for disorders associated with night-eating syndrome, shift work and jet lag,” said Louis Ptacek, M.D., the John C. Coleman Distinguished Professor of Neurology at UCSF and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.
That’s all very well and good for the researchers and their future work into these important health issues, but what about my current cookie cravings? I guess I’ll just have to get back on track with a healthy eating schedule on my own.
Unless, of course, this blizzard ever does show up and leaves me snowbound with a few dozen leftover Christmas cookies. Bon appétit!
How Holiday Overeating Affects Your Body’s Food Clockhttp://ehstoday.com/blog/how-holiday-overeating-affects-your-body-s-food-clockhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

It should go without saying that driving sober or securing a designated driver is a key way to stay safe this New Year’s Eve. But another danger lurks on this holiday, too: fires or injuries caused by careless or unsafe use of fireworks.
Setting off some consumer fireworks on New Years is a tradition that can be safe as long as a few commonsense safety rules are followed, according to Ralph Apel, spokesperson for the National Council on Fireworks Safety. He offers the following firework safety tips to follow this New Year’s and beyond:
Know your fireworks. Read the warning labels and performance descriptions before igniting.
Have a designated shooter organize and shoot your family show.
Alcohol and fireworks do not mix. Save your alcohol for after the show.
Parents and caretakers must closely supervise teens if they are using fireworks.
Parents should not allow young children to handle or use fireworks.
Fireworks should only be used outdoors.
Always have water ready if you are shooting fireworks.
Obey local laws. If fireworks are not legal where you live, do not use them.
Wear safety glasses whenever using fireworks.
Never relight a “dud” firework. Wait 20 minutes and then soak it in a bucket of water.
Soak spent fireworks with water before placing them in an outdoor garbage can.
Never attempt to alter or modify consumer fireworks and use them only in the manner in which they were intended.
Report illegal explosives, like M-80s and quarter sticks, to the fire or police department.
With these tips in mind, you’ll be on your way to a bright but safe start to 2013.
Firework Safety: Don’t Let Your New Year Start with a Banghttp://ehstoday.com/safety/firework-safety-don-t-let-your-new-year-start-banghttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

About a million people experience falls every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and approximately 20,000 people die annually due to fall-related injuries. Now that winter weather has arrived in full force and many parts of the country are experiencing snowy and icy conditions, play it safe when stepping outside to avoid painful and dangerous falls.
Mike Ross, author of The Balance Manual and exercise physiologist at Gottlieb Center for Fitness, part of Loyola University Health System, explained that some of the unavoidable bodily changes that occur as we age may affect personal safety. As we grow older, our balance deteriorates due to the weakening of muscles and change in sensory perception, especially in the ear structure. Equilibrium, or balance, is largely determined by the inner ear and the brain.
“As we age, our eardrums often thicken and the bones of the middle ear and other structures are affected. It often becomes increasingly difficult to maintain balance,” Ross said. “Aging also breaks down cells in the nervous system, which can often result in a delay in reflexes that can lead to susceptibility to injury.”
Ross offers the following eight tips to navigate slippery winter conditions safely this year:
Check your footwear. Examine your shoes and boots for traction and determine whether it’s time for a new pair. Better traction can help keep you more stable on icy surfaces.
Keep a shovel and salt in your house. Don’t keep these useful tools in the garage or other out-of-the-way spot – you want them close at hand so you can clear your sidewalk, porch and steps.
Check the railings. Examine the railings leading up to your front door to ensure they’re sturdy and capable of supporting you if you slip.
Bring a cell phone when you leave the house. If you fall, it may be hard to get up. Carrying a cell phone whenever you go out can bring peace of mind.
Slow down. Allow extra time if it’s slippery out. When you rush, you end up pushing the limits of your sense of balance. And remember: It’s better to be a little late than rushing and causing a fall.
Ask for help. If you have to walk across an icy sidewalk or parking lot, try to find a steady arm to lean on. Most people are happy to help someone navigate a slippery walkway, so you just have to ask.
Have a plan. When you are going out, ask yourself, “If I slipped and fell here, what would I do?”
Strengthen your legs. Strong leg muscles can help you steady yourself if you slip. And if you do fall, they make it a lot easier to get back up. You should exercise your legs regularly to keep them strong. Try walking up and down your stairs repeatedly or do a set of 10 squats out of a chair a couple of times per week.
“Many falls can be successfully avoided or the impact minimized by applying a few basic strategies,” Ross concluded.
8 Tips to Navigate Slippery Winter Conditions Safelyhttp://ehstoday.com/health/8-tips-navigate-slippery-winter-conditions-safelyhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Researchers at NIOSH’s National Personal Protective Technology Laboratory (NPPTL) hope to use the new “sweating thermal manikin” to create less burdensome materials and designs for protective clothing used by workers who face the risk of heat stress from prolonged duty in hot and physically stressful work environments.
“We are continually investigating strategies for improving workplace safety and health,” said Dr. Maryann D’Alessandro, Director of NPPTL. “The implementation of the Sweating Thermal Manikin in the NPPTL research portfolio enables us to keep pace with technological advancements.”
Protective clothing manufacturers use a standard testing process to measure the amount of heat transferred through fabric. Based on this kind of test, a number is assigned to the garment called its “Total Heat Loss number.” This number then acts as an indicator of how much heat the fabric of a garment will trap, and thus the potential for heat stress on the employee wearing the garment.
According to Jon Williams, Ph.D., research physiologist at NIOSH, additional testing methods are necessary to take into account various features of the garment itself, which could affect heat retention: pockets, padded knees or elbows and zippers. Furthermore, many workers employ ensembles – several pieces of protective clothing used together – while performing a job task, each with the potential to increase heat build-up.
Testing, Testing
In order to address the possibility of extra padding, various thickness and accessories, NIOSH has traditionally conducted tests to measure Total Heat Loss using volunteer human subjects to measure physiological responses to physical activity while wearing the garments (or ensembles) in a controlled environment. Though this type of testing is invaluable for its real-world applicability and measures actual human reactions, it also has limitations. While all human bodies are similar physiologically, they differ in gender, fitness level and body size. The purchase and use of the “sweating thermal manikin” provides a third and additional method of testing needed in order to determine standardized responses.
“If we want to compare one specific ensemble to another, we don’t want to use human beings, because of individual variations,” said Williams. “So if we want to look at a standardized response, we test all of the different kinds of ensemble types on a sweating thermal manikin producing a response only dependent on the ensembles, not the particularities of the test subject.”
The sweating capability of the manikin helps to calculate evaporative resistance and garment performance in hot environments. The manikin can also “walk” while wearing a particular garment and is set to begin sweating once a certain “skin” temperature is reached. The sweat rate can be controlled by the researcher and is selectable by manikin zone or region. A network of pores over the exterior of the manikin is spaced to uniformly deliver water to the skin surface. A removable fabric skin layer evenly distributes water by drawing the liquid from the manikin surface, which simulates a sweating person.
NIOSH researchers can use this method of testing to accurately compare the fabric features (insulation and evaporation resistance) of one ensemble to another. Because the manikin’s reaction is always constant, the differences seen are attributed to the ensemble characteristics. The use of the sweating thermal manikin as a way to test fabric ensembles, independent of human variations, provides a standardized reference point from which subsequent human variations can be measured or accounted for, making the overall process of measuring heat stress more comprehensive and efficient.
View a video of the sweating thermal manikin here.
Don’t Sweat It: New NIOSH Test Manikin May Help Combat Heat Stresshttp://ehstoday.com/protective-clothing/don-t-sweat-it-new-niosh-test-manikin-may-help-combat-heat-stresshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

It can be tempting to forgo your fitness routine when the weather outside is frightful. But Kara Smith, personal trainer and group fitness coordinator at the Loyola Center for Fitness, stresses that the cold winter months are no time to abandon your workout schedule.
“It’s hard to stay motivated in the winter,” Smith acknowledges. “When temperatures plummet, the last thing we want to do is leave the comfort and warmth of our homes. But winter is not a good excuse to give up our fitness routines.”
Smith suggests taking advantage of winter outdoor activities, such as ice skating, hockey, skiing or snowshoeing, during the cold weather. You also don’t need to give up your regular outdoor walking or running routines when the temperature drops.
Just follow these tips from Valerie Walkowiak, medical fitness-integration coordinator at the Loyola Center for Fitness, to stay safe:
Bundle up. Wear a hat, scarf and gloves when exercising outdoors. Take special care with extremities when exposing them to the cold. The nose, ears, fingers and toes are especially vulnerable to frostbite.
Choose your shoes and socks wisely. Moisture is extremely dangerous when exercising in the cold, so make sure your shoes are waterproof to keep your feet dry. Also, consider wearing thermal or two pairs of socks to keep your toes warm.
Wear layers. Exercise will generate heat, which may make you feel too warm. Layers allow you the option of taking off piece by piece to keep you at a comfortable temperature.
Layer correctly. The first layer should be a synthetic material such as polypropylene to keep sweat off your skin. Avoid cotton since it stays wet and can cause your skin to get cold. The next layer should be fleece or wool for insulation. The top layer should be a waterproof, breathable material. Avoid heavy jackets that may cause you to overheat if exercising hard.
Stay hydrated. We might think about hydrating more in the summer months, but it’s important in winter, too. Winter is a very dry time of year, so your body needs more water even when not sweating. Dehydration causes muscle fatigue and weakness, so drink lots of water.
Winter Workout Motivations
If you need a little more incentive to get moving this winter, try these tips from Smith:
Think ahead to swimsuit season. Keep a pair of summer shorts in the drawer and try them on every couple weeks to make sure they still fit.
Find an exercise partner. Schedule a time with a friend to exercise and get together for healthy potlucks and weigh-in accountability.
Experiment with healthy foods. Find out what fruits and veggies are in season and discover new recipes you can share at the healthy potluck.
Purchase a gym membership. Most fitness centers have promotions going on in January
Try something new. Purchase a new fitness video you can do at home or start a new fitness activity to keep you going till spring.
“Winter doesn’t last forever,” Smith says, “so stop hibernating and get out and enjoy what each season has to offer.”
No Excuses Allowed: Make Winter Workouts Work for Youhttp://ehstoday.com/health/no-excuses-allowed-make-winter-workouts-work-youhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

The fishing industry is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. The combination of trenuous labor, poor weather conditions and heavy lifting increase the risk for personal injury on the job. Workers often are subjected to some of the most uncomfortable occupational environments found in any industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And because fishermen must work in generally unsafe environments, injury and death are highly prevalent, making this occupation one of the most hazardous lines of work.
But despite the difficult working conditions, when it comes to preventing injury, the science of ergonomics can help. A new safety initiative at the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association (AMSEA) funded by a $100,000 OSHA grant aims to prevent injuries in the fishing industry by improving the way occupational tools are used while working.
“Ergonomics is the science of adapting your workplace, your tools, equipment and work methods to be more efficient and comfortable and error free by humans. It’s basically how a human body interacts with their work environment,” explained Jerry Dzugan, director of the Sitka-based AMSEA.
According to the Alaska Fishermen’s Fund, 40 percent of all personal injury claims are due to sprains and straining related to the job’s heavy lifting, pushing and pulling.
“The goal is to reduce the muscular and skeletal disorders that are pervasive in the fishing jobs,” Dzugan said. “Everyone I know who fishes can all tell me about their carpal tunnel, their tendonitis, their shoulder problems or their lower back problems.”
The grant aims to create new tools that reduce weight loads while lifting. Tools such as knives and fish scrapers will be improved, contributing to a safer working environment. Training on mechanical drills and other machinery also will be included in the new program.
Reduce the Risk of Carpal Tunnel and Tendonitis on the Job
While new equipment and training procedures will help reduce the risk for injury among fishermen, those employed in the occupation can reduce their personal risk with these additional tips.
1. Change activities throughout the day. Don’t repeat the same task throughout the day, if you can. Change up your activities regularly and try alternating tasks to avoid overextension or overuse of your muscles and tendons.
2. Stretch regularly. It’s a good idea to stretch your hands and wrists on intermittent breaks throughout the day. Bend hands and wrists in the opposite direction of typical motions.
3. Keep muscles warm. A warm muscle or tendon is less likely to sprain. Keep yourself warm on the job by wearing down vests and tall, insulated gloves, and use hand-warmers on downtime.
About the Author: Michael Pines founded the Law Offices of Michael Pines, APC, in San Diego in 1992. He is an accident and injury prevention expert in San Diego, and he is on a campaign to end senseless injury one blog at a time.
Ergonomics Could Prevent a ‘Boatload’ of Work-Related Accidentshttp://ehstoday.com/blog/ergonomics-could-prevent-boatload-work-related-accidentshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

The life of a hospital emergency preparedness coordinator (EPC) is an exercise in prioritization. The day starts with errant fire alarms and security actions, continues with a crushing schedule of meetings and trainings, and often ends late at night with the EPC wondering, “What just happened? What did I accomplish? Did I make my hospital safer today?”
In this hectic schedule, there isn’t a lot of time to engage your facility and staff in serious disaster preparation. Fire alarms, snow emergencies and “Code Pink” or child abduction drills often are practiced through the year. While these are important, the incident that is too often overlooked is that of a contaminated patient or patients arriving at your emergency department.
The disaster is not the arrival of the contaminated patients. The disaster will be when the primarily contaminated victim arrives at your door and then secondarily contaminates your emergency department, staff and other patients. It is incumbent upon the receiving entity to triage, decontaminate and treat contaminated patients.
Meet Anna Marsh
There is an old saying, “If you want something done, ask the busy guy. He has momentum!”
In Fort Wayne, Ind., there’s a new variation on that theme: “If you want something done, ask a feisty emergency preparedness coordinator with four daughters, bible study, kick boxing classes and one of the states largest hospital facilities in her charge.”
In other words: If you need something done, give it to Anna Marsh.
Anna Marsh is the emergency preparedness coordinator for Parkview Regional Medical Center (PRMC) in Fort Wayne, Ind. PRMC is an expansive facility opened in 2012 on the north side of this city of 250,000 people. It covers 4 million square feet of real estate that includes a nine-story tower of inpatient rooms and services and a helicopter full of jet fuel perched on the roof. The facility is projected to have over 50,000 emergency department visits this year. Anna has her hands full, and she not only thinks about hazardous materials and contaminated patients, but she has a solid workable plan for handling them. More importantly, she has a plan for getting her staff trained.
The Decontamination Challenge in Hospital Emergency Preparednesshttp://ehstoday.com/emergency-management/decontamination-challenge-hospital-emergency-preparednesshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Regain the upper hand over added holiday pounds by following a simple P.L.A.N. for weight-loss success:
P: Preparation. Whether you are the CEO of your home or CEO of a Fortune 500 company, you know that the odds of success increase with preparation. One of the biggest missteps is to depend on “willpower.” If you are stressed after a long day at work, you didn’t sleep well the night before and you missed your afternoon snack, what will you choose when you get home: the chocolate chip cookies or preparing a sensible dinner? If, on the other hand, there are no cookies available and you have already prepared dinner, then what do you chose? That’s the difference between willpower and preparation.
Step 1: Go through the pantry and fridge and dispose of tempting leftovers. You will not help starvation in Africa or any other country by overindulging. Restock with your favorite fruits, vegetables and raw nuts, all of which make easy snacks. Divide the nuts into appropriate single-serving sizes. Remember: preparation, not willpower.
Step 2: Take one a day a week to prepare for the week ahead. If you already know what you are going to have for breakfast, you’re less apt to skip this meal, which sets you up to overindulge the rest of the day. If you know that you’ll be eating out this week, take time to look at the menu items and nutrition facts for the restaurant online. You also can use the time to plan appropriate substitutions. With this strategy you accomplish two things: making better choices and appearing spontaneous and decisive to your dining partners.
L: Identify your limits. This is the key to success for many weight management programs. It may be presented as daily points, calorie count or prepackaged foods, but the take-home message is the same: Know your limits.
Step 1: A simple rule of thumb is to eat your vegetables first, perhaps with 1 to 2 teaspoons of olive oil or crushed nuts to ensure absorption of all the nutrients vegetables offer, then consume your protein source (a portion the size of your palm), and finally, the carbohydrate. Keep carbs whole grain, high fiber and limit to a half-cup. Eating this way has several advantages. It slows down the absorption of sugar and thereby prevents insulin spikes and reactive hunger; it helps you to feel fuller more quickly; and it maximizes absorption of nutrients.
Step 2: Other things to consider are limiting sodium to less than 2,000 mg a day; limit alcohol to one to two drinks a week; and put all sauces and dressing on the side so you control the amount used – no more than 1 tablespoon. Avoid fried foods, trans fats and foods with a primary ingredient of sugar.
A: Increase activity level. You want to increase activity not because it will help you lose weight but because it will improve your energy, mood and muscle tone. All are important ingredients in any weight-loss program. The first rule of thumb is to pick an activity that you like – or one you don’t hate. Next, shoot for consistency before quantity. Starting out with an hour a day may feel overwhelming and exhausting, and also can cause an injury, which would derail all your good intentions. If 10 minutes four times a week allows you to be consistent, then start there and build up. Rome was not built in a day.
N: Cut the negative talk. Remember when your grandmother said you could attract more flies with honey? I think this is what she meant. Beating up on yourself gives you the excuse you need to continue the habits that have kept you in the same place. We have just left a season where, hopefully, we have been reminded of the importance of being kind to others. Why not extend that kindness to yourself?
Instead of constantly looking for proof of why you are going to fail, look for evidence of success: “I exercised 10 minutes a day for four days last week and already I am feeling a bit better. Wow, imagine when I can do it for 15 minutes.”
I often hear patients say, “It’s been a month and I have only lost three or four pounds.” This is not defeat; this is success! In 12 months that will be 36 pounds. Another thing I hear frequently is, “It has been two weeks. I feel better but I haven’t lost any weight so why bother.” Try – “It’s only been two weeks and already I am starting to feel better. Imagine what I can accomplish in three, six, or 12 months. Remember Einstein’s rule: You can’t solve a problem from the same mind frame in which it was created.
About the author: Eudene Harry, M.D., completed her medical degree and residency training at Thomas Jefferson University. She has been practicing medicine nearly 20 years, including 10 as an emergency physician at Level II trauma centers. She is the medical director for the integrative and holistic Oasis Wellness and Rejuvenation Center, and is founder of Oasis for Optimal Health, a private practice focused on integrative, holistic wellness and empowering and educating the patient.
P.L.A.N. for Success and You’ll Lose Those Holiday Poundshttp://ehstoday.com/health/plan-success-and-you-ll-lose-those-holiday-poundshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Wearing head-lamps to light their way through this coal mine, this historic image, provided by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), depicted three miners as they were strategizing their next move. Note that none of the men was wearing and protective filtered breathing devices, which is now protocol under such circumstances. Unfortunately, some mine operators still operate as if it’s 1960.
MSHA’s monthly special impact inspections, which began in force in April 2010 following the explosion at the Upper Big Branch Mine, involve mines that merit increased agency attention and enforcement due to their poor compliance history or particular compliance concerns. These concerns include high numbers of violations or closure orders; frequent hazard complaints or hotline calls; plan compliance issues; inadequate workplace examinations; a high number of accidents, injuries or illnesses; fatalities; adverse conditions such as increased methane liberation, faulty roof conditions and inadequate ventilation; and respirable dust.
“We continue to identify operators who have not gotten the message,” said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health. “Exposure to harmful levels of respirable dust is unacceptable. Not conducting adequate examinations is unacceptable. Miners deserve better.”
MSHA Issues 285 Citations During November Impact Inspectionshttp://ehstoday.com/msha/msha-issues-285-citations-during-november-impact-inspectionshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Research has shown time and again that driving with a cell phone reduces concentration and can lead to crashes, but has yet to put a firm link on just how many crashes might be caused directly by electronic distractions. Whatever the studies say, it’s clear that not paying attention behind the wheel for any reason makes driving less safe.
Unfortunately, the need to stay connected is so strong that far too many drivers think they can get away with it.
To counter the rising amount of distracted driving-related crashes, automakers like Ford Motor Co. are striving to help lower distracted driving in any way they can. Ford believes that research is the key to solving the driver distraction issue. It influences public policy, driver education and the development of advanced technologies and vehicle features. As part of its effort to reduce risky driving behavior, in 2001, Ford became the first auto manufacturer in North America to invest in a full-motion-based driving simulator to lead the study of driver reaction and behavior in a controlled and safe laboratory setting.
Technologies to Combat Distraction
Ford isn’t the only one looking into technological advances to lower distracted driving. Here are some of the top distracted driving prevention technologies:
►Cellular lock down – Plenty of applications use a phone’s GPS system to block various functionalities (text, email, Web, phone calls) when a driver is moving faster than a certain speed. While all of these applications shut down distracting functionalities like chat, texting and Web surfing, some still allow you to make and receive calls, while others allow you to permit or block certain functionalities like voice dialing. Most these apps also allow a person to track another’s whereabouts by pinpointing the phone’s location on an online map.
►Safety features for auto DVD players and GPS systems– Built-in automobile DVD players have safety features that disable driver-viewable screens while a car is in motion. Similarly, GPS navigation systems with their turn-by-turn audio directions are a huge improvement over the days when Dad would drive with a paper map in one hand and the steering wheel in the other. Built-in GPS units are equipped with safety features that prevent drivers from keying in data while a vehicle is in motion. Still, the temptation to stare at the GPS screen rather than the road remains. Automobile DVD players and GPS devices can cut down on distractions, if used properly. However, if users bypass the safety features, they can be as dangerous, if not more dangerous, than texting while driving.
►The wave of the future: cars that drive themselves– Using robotics and artificial intelligence software, Google is taking the next step and testing cars that actually drive themselves. Proponents agree that the advantages of robotically driven cars are clear. Robotic drivers never get distracted – they can perceive objects on all sides as well as above and below, and their reaction times are faster than those of human drivers. To date, Google researchers have driven test cars robotically for more than 140,000 miles (225,308 kilometers) with minimal human intervention. The cars perform equally well in city traffic and on the freeway. They stop for stop signs and keep the human driver apprised of conditions, announcing upcoming turns and approaching crosswalks. Production of the “autonomous” cars is still years away, however.
With all of these advancements, however, there are still countless accidents every year that occur from distracted driving. Research on distracted driving reveals some surprising facts:
20 percent of injury crashes in 2009 involved reports of distracted driving. (NHTSA).
Of those killed in distracted-driving-related crashes, 995 involved reports of a cell phone as a distraction (18 percent of fatalities in distraction-related crashes). (NHTSA)
In 2009, 5,474 people were killed in U.S. roadways and an estimated additional 448,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes that were reported to have involved distracted driving (FARS and GES).
Using a cell phone while driving, whether it’s hand-held or hands-free, delays a driver’s reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration at the legal limit of .08 percent (Source: University of Utah).
Alcohol-impaired drivers are involved in about 1 in 3 crash deaths, resulting in nearly 11,000 deaths in 2009. A recent CDC report discusses drinking and driving and the proven measures that can help.
To learn what the state, employers, health professionals, and you can do to stop drinking and driving, and to read the full article from the CDC, click here. For more information about distracted driving from Summit, visit http://www.safetyontheweb.com.
Katherine McCarthy is the communications coordinator for Summit Training Source Inc. McCarthy researches, writes and manages Summit’s blog, as well as numerous white papers, articles and marketing collateral. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Grand Valley State University and can be reached at Katherinem@safetyontheweb.com or @SafetyTraining1 on Twitter.
Sources:
“Drinking and Driving: A Threat to Everyone.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 04 Oct. 2011. Web. 20 Dec. 2012.
Grimes, Gerlinda. “Top 5 Distracted Driver Prevention Technologies.” Discovery Channel. Discovery Communications, LLC, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2012.
“Reducing Driver Distractions.” Ford Motor Company, Aug. 2012. Web. 19 Dec. 2012.
“What Is Distracted Driving?” Distracted Driving – Get the Facts. U.S. Department of Transportation, n.d. Web. 20 Dec. 2012.
Distracted Driving is Dangerous Drivinghttp://ehstoday.com/blog/distracted-driving-dangerous-drivinghttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

A new campaign, Quit & Stay Quit Monday, offers free tools to help smokers make a weekly recommitment to their goal of going cigarette-free in 2013. The campaign’s Quit Line counselors, online forums and Monday motivator messages, which can be sent through email, SMS or social media, provides smokers with the extra boost they need to stay smoke-free.
Employers can join in by promoting their smoking cessation programs every Monday and making use of the campaign’s materials.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 70 percent of American smokers would like to kick the habit. Even so, the majority of those who resolve to quit as a New Year’s resolution will be back to the pack by Groundhog Day. It can take from eight to 11 attempts to stop smoking for good, with the average quit attempt lasting just 8 days before relapse.
Mondays Provide a Fresh Start
Instead of waiting for big annual events – like birthdays or New Year’s – experts recommend that smokers recommit to their quit every Monday. Mondays are a natural opportunity to engage smokers and reduce their likelihood of relapse. It’s the January of the week, the day that smokers are looking for help.
“Research shows that Monday is the day people are open to starting healthy behaviors, so it’s a good day to quit, celebrate success, and recover from relapses,” said Joanna Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Smoking is the number one cause of preventable death, so encouraging additional quit attempts has the potential to save lives.”
The Quit & Stay Quit Monday campaign has developed free tools and social media resources to help smokers quit leading up to New Year’s and stay quit every Monday thereafter. Individuals can join the quit community on Facebook and Twitter, while quit service providers can receive free promotional posters and weekly tips for distribution.
Quit & Stay Quit Monday founder Sid Lerner hopes that these weekly materials will lead to more frequent cessation messaging and higher quit rates in 2013.
“Smoke cessation shouldn’t be an annual all-or-nothing,” says Lerner. “When quitters check in once a week, they get 52 chances a year to celebrate success or quickly try again. And with our new Monday communities, they’ll have the support they need online: it’s an easy way to stay on track once you’ve made that New Year’s resolution.”
Quit & Stay Quit Monday is a project of The Monday Campaigns, a nonprofit initiative in association with Johns Hopkins, Columbia and Syracuse Universities.
Smokers, Recommit to Your Quit Every Mondayhttp://ehstoday.com/health/smokers-recommit-your-quit-every-mondayhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

A winning entry in the 2013 National Radon Poster Contest, sponsored by Kansas State University in partnership with EPA.
When Eddie Metcalfe got a CAT scan to check for kidney stones, doctors found something much more troubling: lung cancer. “I hadn’t smoked in 22 years. How could this happen to me?” Metcalfe asked. The answer was invisible and potentially deadly: radon.
“I literally left the doctor’s office, got a [radon] test kit, put it in the house, and our result was 39.8. The upper limit is four,” Metcalfe explained in a public service announcement video. “I think everybody should have their house tested.”
You can’t see, smell, or taste radon, but it could be present at a dangerous level in your home. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers in America and claims the lives of about 20,000 Americans each year. Exposure to radon is a preventable health risk, and testing radon levels in your home can help prevent unnecessary exposure.
During National Radon Action Month in January, EPA and the U.S. Surgeon General urge all Americans to protect their health by testing their homes, schools and other buildings for radon.
Protect Yourself from Radon
EPA offers the following four steps to protect against radon poisoning:
Test your home. Radon testing is easy and inexpensive. Learn more about testing your home, including how to obtain an easy-to-use test kit.
Attend a National Radon Action Month event in your area. Look for radon events in your community. Contact your state radon program for more information about local radon activities.
Spread the word. This January, encourage others to learn about radon and test their homes. Plan an activity in your community to help raise awareness; write an op-ed or letter to the editor about the dangers of radon; or attract media attention by working with a local official to get a radon proclamation. (Use EPA’s National Radon Action Month Event Planning Kit as a guide.)
Buy a radon-resistant home. If you are considering buying a new home, look for builders who use radon-resistant new construction. Learn more by reading “Building Radon Out: A Step-by-Step Guide to Build Radon-Resistant Homes.” Contact your state radon program for information about radon testing, mitigation and radon-resistant new construction in your area.
For more information about radon and safety, visit EPA’s National Radon Action Month site.
This January, Test Your Home for Radonhttp://ehstoday.com/health/january-test-your-home-radonhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Four of the nine honorees named to IndustryWeek’s Manufacturing Hall of Fame have ties to companies that have been recognized by EHS Today as America’s Safest Companies. Coincidence? Not if you believe many experts, who note the direct correlation of safe production to enhanced productivity rates.
Manufacturing Hall of Fame inductees are selected by IndustryWeek editors from reader-nominated candidates. Nominations are based on one or more of the following criteria:
Significantly improving manufacturing industry efficiency and productivity through process and/or technology innovations.
Establishing widely accepted manufacturing best practices in operational areas such as (but not limited to) management, product development, safety, purchasing, quality and supply chain and logistics.
Creating manufacturing companies – and even entire industries – from the ground up, through product ideas and/or innovative approaches to business leadership and management.
Setting new standards for manufacturers in areas such as sustainability and corporate responsibility.
Revitalizing manufacturing organizations and operations through continuous-improvement efforts and/or innovative business practices.
Influencing and supporting as well as advocating for the cause of U.S. manufacturing through their research, writings, activism, policies or thought leadership.
“Through our Manufacturing Hall of Fame, IndustryWeek extends recognition to individual leaders in the manufacturing community whose vision, leadership and legacy not only provided value to their individual organizations but also beneficially impacted the larger business community and our society,” said IndustryWeek Editor-in-Chief Patricia Panchak.
The 2012 IndustryWeek Manufacturing Hall of Fame class of 2012 is:
Norm Augustine – Augustine engineered the 1995 merger between Martin Marietta and Lockheed, creating the world’s biggest defense contractor – Lockheed Martin. In recent years, his efforts have focused on raising awareness of the critical role that science, technology, engineering and mathematics and STEM education play in getting the United States back on track in a hypercompetitive global economy. Lockheed Martin was named to the first list of America’s Safest Companies in 2002.
Art Byrne – Byrne’s roll-up-your-sleeves, get-to-the-gemba approach to implementing lean manufacturing best practices has become a benchmark for executive involvement in continuous-improvement initiatives. His dramatic transformation of Wiremold is detailed in Jim Womack’s seminal book “Lean Thinking.”
Lewis Campbell – As the CEO of Textron (America’s Safest Companies 2008) in the 2000s, Campbell spearheaded one of the most impressive corporate transformations in modern manufacturing history. In 2002, Campbell launched Textron Six Sigma, which has become a fabric of the company’s operations.
Scott Crump – The fused-deposition modeling (FDM) process that Crump invented in 1989 has grown into an industry-defining company worth just shy of $200 million that has put additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, on the map.
Robert Curl – The Rice University emeritus professor shared the 1996 Nobel Prize for Chemistry by virtue of his role in the discovery of the “buckyball,” which paved the way for a new branch of chemistry – nanotechnology – which is a new frontier for EHS practitioners.
Dick Dauch – During Dauch’s illustrious career in the automotive industry, he launched Volkswagen’s U.S. manufacturing operation in 1976; played a key role in Chrysler’s revival in the early 1980s; and led an investment group that purchased five former GM plants in 1994, forming American Axle & Manufacturing. DaimlerChrysler was named one of America’s Safest Companies in 2003.
Doc Hall – For more than 30 years, Hall has been both a student and strong advocate of Japanese production methods and lean manufacturing techniques. An IndustryWeek Best Plants judge since 1990, Hall is a founding member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence.
Jim McNerney – As the CEO of Boeing since July 2005, McNerney has brought much-needed stability to the aerospace giant’s executive suite, leading Boeing to record revenue and helping the company reclaim its crown as the world’s top commercial-airplane manufacturer.
Paul O’Neill – O’Neill galvanized Alcoa’s work force by setting high standards for occupational safety, transforming the company’s financial results in the process. During his 13-year reign at Alcoa, as he reduced workplace injury rates, Alcoa’s revenues increased from $1.5 billion to $23 billion while net income increased from $200 million to $1.5 billion. It was O’Neill’s dedication to safety, while maintaining high production values and increased productivity, that was one of the catalysts for the launch of America’s Safest Companies. Alcoa was named to the inaugural list of America’s Safest Companies in 2002.
Photo gallery of IndustryWeek’s Manufacturing Hall of Fame Class of 2012.
America’s Safest Companies Well Represented in IndustryWeek’s 2012 Manufacturing Hall of Famehttp://ehstoday.com/safety/america-s-safest-companies-well-represented-industryweek-s-2012-manufacturing-hall-famehttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

I research and write about musculoskeletal pain and injuries several times a year, so you’d think I’d know how to avoid pain related to overuse, both on and off the job. As someone who could not stand up straight this morning, I obviously do not take my own advice.
I’m not exactly a weekend warrior. I don’t go out on Saturdays and play flag football or broom hockey. Like many people, I’m active in the summer – gardening, walking, hiking, swimming – and much less so in the winter.
Inspired by a New Year’s marathon of Extreme Hoarders episodes, I decided to organize the attic. When we first moved in, the attic probably was the best-organized space in the house. Over the past 10 years, that organized has de-evolved to walking a box or bag up to the top of the stairs, putting it down, and shoving it back as far as it will go.
This year, we reached the point where things couldn’t be shoved back any farther, so we began stacking boxes to the point of them becoming a falling hazard. One of my New Year’s resolutions was to organize the attic and the basement (where the discarded furniture of the household goes to die). Since all the Christmas decorations have to go back up to the attic, I decided to start there.
The biggest issue with the attic is that even though it’s a walk-up, it’s not finished. There is a space of about 100 square feet (out of probably 500 square feet total) where you can stand upright. The rest of the space features eaves that quickly slope to the floor.
Organizing the attic means spending most of the time hunched over or hunkered down. It also means carrying boxes and bags down to the second floor to be sorted into “keep,” “donate” and “toss” piles. The “keep” piles go back to the attic, while the “donate” and “toss” piles go down to the first floor or out to the garage. All of it involves multiple trips up and down the steep attic stairs while carrying 25-50 pound boxes and bins, some of which then go down another set of stairs to the first floor.
I spent seven hours in the attic yesterday, and even a hot shower and a dose of naproxen sodium appears to have done little to help with my aching muscles. So let me give you the advice I should have taken myself:
Know your safe lifting limits.
Lift with your legs and not your back or upper body.
Hold boxes close to the body. You want to keep the weight as close to you as possible.
Take breaks and drink water.
After a hiatus from physical activity or exercise, start back slowly and make sure you warm up first.
Don’t allow your attic to become a disorganized mess.
Oh, My Aching Back!!http://ehstoday.com/blog/oh-my-aching-backhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Parents should emphasize the importance of safe, cell-phone-free driving to their teens, according to Purnima Unni, Pediatric Trauma Injury Prevention Program coordinator at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn. The only call teens should make while behind the wheel is in emergency situations – and only then after they’ve pulled over and turned off the engine. Otherwise, they may put their lives and others at risk.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 3,092 people were killed in 2010 due to crashes involving a distracted driver, and an estimated 416,000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver. Recent studies show that cellular phone use may increase crash rates fourfold. Using hands-free models are not associated with significantly less risk.
In addition to turning off the phone, Unni urges parents to pass along the following safe driving tips to their teens:
Limit passengers. The risk of fatal teen crashes increases with every additional passenger. With three or more passengers, the fatal crash risk is about four times higher than when a beginner drives alone. Studies also show that teens with passengers are more likely to take risks and be distracted.
Slow down. Speed kills. Teens tend to have the need for speed due to their impulsive nature. Thirty-seven percent of male drivers between the ages of 15-20 were speeding right before their fatal crash.
Wear seat belts. Seat belts save lives. Everyone in the car needs to buckle up.
Enforce the rules with a parent-teen driving agreement. Discuss the rules of the road with your teen, as well as consequences for breaking the rules. Work with your teen to draft and sign a parent-teen driving agreement. Take the keys away if necessary if they break this agreement.
Don’t drink and drive. Nearly 1 million high school teens drank alcohol and got behind the wheel in 2011. Drinking any alcohol greatly increases the risk for teen crashes. Laws in every state make it illegal for those under 21 to drive after drinking any alcohol. Talk to your teen about the dangers of drinking and driving.
Visit the hospital’s Teen Motor Vehicle Safety Program to learn more.
Talking to Teens about the Dangers of Distracted Drivinghttp://ehstoday.com/safety/talking-teens-about-dangers-distracted-drivinghttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

The first meeting of the Department of Labor’s Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee (WPAC) will convene Jan. 29 in Washington, D.C., to make discuss, among other recommendations, improving regulations governing OSHA investigations.
The WPAC was created in 2012 to advise, consult with and make recommendations to the secretary of labor and the assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health on ways to improve the fairness, efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of OSHA’s whistleblower protection programs.
“Protecting workers who identify wrongdoing is an essential cornerstone of the U.S. Department of Labor’s worker protection enforcement efforts,” said Solis. “The members of the whistleblower committee, who represents the interests of labor, management and the public, will utilize their expertise to provide valuable advice and recommendations to help OSHA strengthen and improve our whistleblower protection program.”
In addition to revealing the first WPAC meeting date, Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis also announced the committee’s inaugural appointees. The 12 voting and three ad-hoc members will serve 2-year terms. The committee will meet at least twice a year.
Three members represent the public:
Jonathan Brock, retired associate professor, Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs, University of Washington; and chairman, Hanford Concerns Council
Richard Moberly, associate dean, University of Nebraska
Emily Spieler, Edwin W. Hadley professor of law, Northeastern School of Law (chairperson)
Four members represent management:
David Eherts, vice president and chief safety officer, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.
Gregory Keating, shareholder, co-chair of the whistleblowing practice group and member of the board of directors, Littler Mendelson P.C.
Marcía Narine, visiting professor at the University of Missouri; and compliance consultant, MDO Partners
Kenneth Wengert, C.S.P., A.R.M., director of safety, environment and business continuity planning, Kraft Foods
Four members represent labor:
Ava Barbour, associate general counsel, International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America
Eric Frumin, health and safety director, Change to Win
Billie Garde, partner, Clifford & Garde LLP
Nancy Lessin, program director, United Steelworkers’ Tony Mazzocchi Center for Health, Safety and Environmental Education
One member represents OSHA state plans:
Christine Dougherty, discrimination investigator, Minnesota Department of Labor & Industry
Three non-voting members represent federal agencies:
Rina Tucker Harris, enforcement attorney, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
John Van Steenburg, chief safety officer, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration
Jason Zuckerman, senior legal advisor, U.S. Office of Special Counsel
The Jan. 29 meeting will be held at the Labor Department’s Frances Perkins Building in Washington, D.C., to make recommendations regarding the development and/or implementation of better customer service to workers and employers, improvement in the investigative and enforcement processes, improvement of regulations governing OSHA investigations, and recommendations for cooperative activities with federal agencies responsible for areas also covered by the whistleblower protection statutes enforced by OSHA.
For more information on how to participate, read the Federal Register notice.
New Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee to Meet Jan. 29http://ehstoday.com/osha/new-whistleblower-protection-advisory-committee-meet-jan-29http://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Transocean has agreed to pay $1.4 billion in criminal and civil fines related to its role in the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blowout at the Macondo well site.
Transocean Deepwater Inc. has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) and to pay a total of $1.4 billion in civil and criminal fines and penalties for its conduct in relation to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The criminal information, and a proposed partial civil consent decree to resolve the U.S. government’s civil penalty claims against Transocean Deepwater Inc. and related entities, were filed in U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
“This resolution of criminal allegations and civil claims against Transocean brings us one significant step closer to justice for the human, environmental and economic devastation wrought by the Deepwater Horizon disaster,” said Attorney General Eric Holder. “This agreement holds Transocean criminally accountable for its conduct and provides nearly a billion dollars in criminal and civil penalties for the benefit of the Gulf states. I am particularly grateful to the many Justice Department personnel and federal investigative agency partners for the hard work that led to today’s resolution and their continuing pursuit of justice for the people of the Gulf.”
In addition, Transocean Deepwater Inc. signed a cooperation and guilty plea agreement with the government, admitting its criminal conduct. As part of the plea agreement, Transocean Deepwater Inc. has agreed, subject to the court’s approval, to pay $400 million in criminal fines and penalties and to continue its on-going cooperation in the government’s criminal investigation. In addition, pursuant to the terms of a proposed partial civil consent decree, Transocean Ocean Holdings LLC, Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc., Transocean Deepwater Inc. and Triton Asset Leasing GMBH have agreed to pay an additional $1 billion to resolve federal Clean Water Act civil penalty claims for the massive, 3-month-long oil spill at the Macondo Well and the Transocean drilling rig Deepwater Horizon.
In a statement released following the agreement, Transocean commented, “These important agreements, which the company believes to be in the best interest of its shareholders and employees, remove much of the uncertainty associated with the accident. This is a positive step forward, but it is also a time to reflect on the 11 men who lost their lives aboard the Deepwater Horizon. Their families continue to be in the thoughts and prayers of all of us at Transocean.”
Under the civil settlement, the Transocean defendants also must implement court-enforceable measures to improve the operational safety and emergency response capabilities at all their drilling rigs working in waters of the United States.
The settlement and plea agreement “is an important step toward holding Transocean and those responsible for the Deepwater Horizon disaster accountable,” said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “EPA will continue to work with DOJ and its federal partners to vigorously pursue the government’s claims against all responsible parties and ensure that we are taking every possible step to restore and protect the Gulf Coast ecosystem.”
According to Lanny A. Breuer, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Transocean’s rig crew accepted the direction of BP well site leaders to proceed in the face of clear danger signs, “at a tragic cost to many of them. Transocean’s agreement to plead guilty to a federal crime, and to pay a total of $1.4 billion in criminal and civil penalties, appropriately reflects its role in the Deepwater Horizon disaster
Transocean Agrees to Plead Guilty to Environmental Crimes in Deepwater Horizon Settlementhttp://ehstoday.com/epa/transocean-agrees-plead-guilty-environmental-crimes-deepwater-horizon-settlementhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Physicians have an ethical obligation to prepare themselves to respond to natural disasters in their communities, writes the editor-in-chief of the Southern Medical Journal in a special issue dedicated to disaster preparedness.
Surveys suggest that while most U.S. physicians are willing to play a role in responding to natural and manmade disasters, but most do not feel adequately prepared to fulfill that role. The January Southern Medical Journal, the official journal of the Southern Medical Association, offers a special issue on disaster medicine and physician preparedness. The special issue includes 22 reviews and original papers on preparing for the medical response to disasters and catastrophic events.
“I take the position that it is a professional and an ethical responsibility to potential patients and society for physicians to engage in sufficient self-learning that would provide them with at least an acceptable level of clinical preparation to meet the demands of caring for victims of a disaster in their town, city, county or state,” said SMJ Editor-in-Chief Dr. G. Richard Holt.
Surveys Find Physicians Don’t Feel Prepared to Respond to Disastershttp://ehstoday.com/emergency-management/surveys-find-physicians-don-t-feel-prepared-respond-disastershttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Abu Dhabi
Officials from the Abu Dhabi EHS Center and the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) joined together in November 2012 to develop the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Strategy, the first such strategy addressing workplace safety in Abu Dhabi. The strategy aims to help the Abu Dhabi EHS Center, sector regulatory authorities, government and private entities and other relevant stakeholders ensure sustained and substantial improvement in Abu Dhabi’s occupational safety and health performance over the next decade.
“We have been working with Abu Dhabi officials for years on the importance of preventing workplace injuries and illnesses and are pleased that not only have they developed a strategy aimed at doing just this, but also opened its new EHS Center,” said ASSE President Richard A. Pollock, CSP. “The opening of the Abu Dhabi EHS Center represented years of collaboration with our Middle East members as ASSE continues to provide professional development programs and expertise to new areas in its ongoing effort to prevent injuries and illnesses.”
The Abu Dhabi EHS Center supervises the implementation of the Abu Dhabi Emirate EHS Management System (AD EHSMS) in both government and private sectors, as well as the management of all issues related to occupational safety and health at the Abu Dhabi Emirate level. The country’s top occupational-related injuries and illnesses include:
Falls from height/falling objects/injuries;
Heat-related illness;
Working with electricity/electrocution;
Occupational driving injuries/fatalities; and
Occupational noise induced hearing loss.
Currently, there is limited reliable data on countrywide occupational injuries and illnesses available, Abu Dhabi officials note. They are establishing an Emirate EHS incident and performance database to ensure “more reliable data will be available in the future.”
“It pleases me to see ASSE and the occupational safety, health and environmental profession moving forward as our participation in these landmark activities illustrate,” Pollock said. “We continue to work to prevent injuries and illnesses for millions more workers worldwide.”
Workplace Safety Gets Boost in Abu Dhabi through New Safety Strategyhttp://ehstoday.com/safety/workplace-safety-gets-boost-abu-dhabi-through-new-safety-strategyhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

A new report from the International Labour Organization examines the labor abuses and workplace health and safety conditions of the world’s more than 52 million domestic workers.
At least 52 million people around the world – mainly women – are employed as domestic workers, according to the first research of its kind conducted by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Despite the size of the sector, many domestic workers experience poor working conditions and insufficient legal protection.
Domestic workers account for 7.5 percent of women’s wage employment worldwide and a far greater share in some regions, particularly Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean.
Between the mid-1990s and 2010, there was an increase of more than 19 million domestic workers worldwide. Many migrate to other countries to find work. It is likely that the figures contained in the report underestimate the true numbers of domestic workers worldwide. The figures also exclude child domestic workers below the age of 15, who were not included in the surveys used by the report. Their number was estimated by the ILO at 7.4 million in 2008.
“Domestic workers are frequently expected to work longer hours than other workers and in many countries do not have the same rights to weekly rest that are enjoyed by other workers,” said ILO Deputy Director-General Sandra Polaski.
“Combined with the lack of rights, the extreme dependency on an employer and the isolated and unprotected nature of domestic work can render them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.”
Millions of Domestic Workers Worldwide Are Excluded from Workplace Protectionshttp://ehstoday.com/safety/millions-domestic-workers-worldwide-are-excluded-workplace-protectionshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

As we ring in a new year, we remain shocked and saddened by the tragedy in Newtown. Unfortunately, Newtown now adds its name to a list of equally disturbing tragedies at the hands of mentally disturbed people possessing semi-automatic weapons: Columbine, Aurora, Tucson and Blacksburg (Virginia Tech).
The public has responded by sounding a call to action and Vice President Joe Biden has been tasked with finding a better way forward, meeting this week with representatives of victims groups and gun-safety organizations as well as the National Rifle Association and other gun-owner groups as he drafts the Obama administration’s response to the Newtown shooting. Meetings with video game manufacturers and representatives from the entertainment industry also are planned.
“I want to make it clear that we are not going to get caught up in the notion (that) unless we can do everything we’re going to do nothing,” Biden said today. “It’s critically important (that) we act.”
Every tragic incident is subsequently followed by calls for gun control change. The politicians quickly pick up the baton and legislative bills are crafted at the local and national level to address gun control. Newtown has been no different, with the Senate, Vice President Biden and President Barack Obama determined to change the laws, ostensibly to protect the public. While this is indeed a noble goal, a closer look at successful and enduring change management is necessary to better predict the likelihood of its success.
State after state have passed laws allowing concealed weapons in public. All of this is in the context of fewer shooting deaths overall. Are we safer now or more at risk? Do we have a gun control issue or are they isolated incidences of “guns don’t kill people, people kill people?” (In the interest of full-disclosure, a disclaimer: I am not anti-gun and I believe in the sanctity of the Second Amendment with its right to bear arms, but I have always strongly questioned the inclusion of weaponry that goes beyond personal protection and/or hunting.)
As a change management consultant, I’ve found successful change is predicated on a three-step process: plan, communicate, execute. All three steps are critical to the probability of change success. Assuming that we want to implement a successful and enduring gun control change law, let’s apply these three critical steps.
Step 1 – Plan
Any plan must include an honest assessment of the situation, the proposed scope of the change, probable and likely risks with implementing the plan or with failure of the plan and the team charged with conceiving, implementing and executing the change. This necessarily is predicated on identification of the real issue and catalyst for the proposed change. The planning stage must also address how support will be generated, including providing personal returns for the investments of those affected.
In regards to the gun issue, what is the real problem? Is it access? Is it legality of certain guns and ammunition? Is it screening for mental illness? Is it all of the above? The problem must be identified before a plan can be fashioned. For gun control change to be effective, it first must be realistic and enforceable in scope. It must balance the Second Amendment right to bear arms with restricting access to weaponry that goes well beyond. It must address the reality of special interest groups (i.e. National Rifle Association) adamantly opposing any new restrictions and the realistic threat to politicians that chose to ignore the special interest pressure. More importantly, it must find a way to gain majority support across a diverse population. While a law can be rammed through without majority support, it won’t be successful in its ultimate goals without it. Finally, it must concede that it is impossibly to fully prevent a tragedy from occurring again, but the new legislation will make its occurrence much less likely.
Sadly, current legislation being proposed is little more than a public relations stunt to make it appear that someone is doing something. If the assumption is that semi-automatic guns are the culprit for the recent tragedies, does exempting a large class of these weapons make this law practically successful? Also, does exempting current ownership of these weapons significantly alter the current situation? While the thought process likely is one of “better to get something than nothing,” the argument should be, “let’s get something that actually makes a significant change.”
This law, even if passed, won’t reduce the likelihood of another Newtown. In fact, sales of semi-automatic weapons were sharply higher following the tragedy. People are anticipating a whiplash reaction and want to protect themselves from this reactive force. If anything, the scepter of this legislation has had an opposite affect and the legislation hasn’t even been debated yet, let alone passed.
The currently proposed legislation is an example of planning failure. While it is limited in scope, it is fatally limited. It also doesn’t have majority support nor does it address how its supporters will respond to both special interest challenges and to the current situation. In this case, it is better that there be no legislative response than a poor, ineffective legislative response. A better solution might be to engage the special interest groups, who also don’t want repeats of Newtown.
Step 2 – Communicate
Any change initiative requires honest, relevant and timely communication between the sponsor, team leaders, team members and those affected. The key is honest communication. Communications that herald bad news, setbacks or failures cannot “punish the messenger.” Effective gun change legislation requires clear and honest communication as to intent, scope and reach. If the legislation is intended to drastically reduce the public’s access to semi-automatic weapons and nothing more, than this must be communicated. If the legislation is intended to also guarantee Second Amendment rights as far as handguns and concealed weapons, then this too clearly must be communicated.
Unfortunately, the term “honest politician” is now considered an oxymoron. There is a distinct shortage of politician credibility. We have been trained by past communications and actions, to not really believe anything that a politician says. Is there hope then of passing effective gun control change? Yes, but it will take a real and sizeable majority across party, geographical and demographical lines for us to consider believing the communication. Without this, it all might sound good, but we won’t be buying what they are selling.
Step 3 – Execute
Finally, the change initiative must be executed according to plan. While no initiative ever proceeds exactly as planned, the ability to “roll with the changes” and respond to changing landscapes is key to seeing the change initiative through. Probable and potential changes should be addressed in the planning stage, communicated throughout the initiative and executed appropriately.
If the gun control plan (legislation) is intended to drastically reduce the public availability and access to semi-automatic weaponry, then the scope and reach must reflect this in the planning stage, must be communicated to the public prior to and throughout the legislative process and then must be acted upon by the legislators with their affirmative voting. Finally, it must be signed into law and then enforced with the full resources provided and available to it. Anything less will be an execution failure that directly results in a change failure.
We can only hope that the current attention being given to this issue is not just an attempt to mollify the public. The real solution must be inclusive and not exclusive of any of the affected constituencies (aka, all of us).
While meaningful gun control legislation might not prevent another Newtown, it dramatically will decrease the likelihood of it. And that’s a change we can and should all believe in, regardless of political, geographic or demographic affiliation.
About the author: Moe Glenner is the founder and president of PURELogistics, a leading consulting firm that specializes in organizational change. He earned his MBA at Lake Forest Graduate School of Management and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt Certification from Villanova University. Glenner’s new book, Selfish Altruism: Managing & Executing Successful Change Initiatives, explores best practices in organizational change. For more information, visit www.moeglenner.com.
Gun Control Change We Can Believe Inhttp://ehstoday.com/blog/gun-control-change-we-can-believehttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

In November 2011, Walmart opened its first U.S. store with 100-percent LED sales floor lighting in Wichita, Kan.
Seven years ago, Walmart launched a sustainability effort that included working toward 100-percent renewable energy, creating zero waste and selling products that sustain people and the environment. Now, researchers at the University of Arkansas and the University of South Carolina are performing case studies to examine the issues Walmart experienced in implementing its broad sustainability strategy.
“Companies have to think about sustainability as a systems problem – a problem not generally well understood,” David Hyatt, clinical assistant professor in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, told EHS Today. “While most managers want to know what works so they can replicate and exploit returns, the real question is about when, where and under what conditions green strategies are profitable, especially given firms’ different competitive and regulatory environments, and their different respective capabilities.”
To address these complexities, Hyatt suggested following Walmart’s lead. “They [Walmart] did not engage in a process of discovery by hiring an analytical consultant to provide the ‘answers.’ Neither did they demand the strategy department produce the answers. Instead, they endogenized the process of searching for the business case into the strategy itself. In short, before hoping for the exploitation of firm benefits once the successful positioning was found, they instead structured an exploratory process about those conditions to discern where environmental and business goals overlap,” said Hyatt.
“Thus more generally, sustainability is a search, not a destination,” he added.
Hyatt and Andrew Spicer, associate professor at the University of South Carolina, are lead contacts for the Walmart Sustainability Case Project, a collaborative effort to develop teaching case studies based on challenges Walmart encountered through the various stages of implementing its sustainability strategy. The project is unique, Hyatt said, because the series of cases focus on one topic and one organization over a specific period of time.
Walmart’s Search for Sustainabilityhttp://ehstoday.com/environment/walmart-s-search-sustainabilityhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

NFPA awards Isman Educational Grant to Austin Fire Department Hazardous Materials
Response Team
January 9, 2013 – The National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) Fire Safety Educational Memorial Fund Committee has selected the Austin Fire Department Hazardous Materials Response Team from Austin, Texas, as the recipient of the 2013 Warren E. Isman Educational Grant.
“The Austin Hazardous Materials Response Team has demonstrated careful and effective methods and mitigation strategies in protecting their jurisdiction from hazardous material threats,” said Ken Isman, chair of the Warren E. Isman Task Force. “We are encouraged by their efforts and pleased to help them achieve further hazmat safety tasks and goals.”
Grant recipients select a conference where they can attend specialized hazardous materials training and education sessions. The selected team has the opportunity to gain knowledge and enhance their ability to excel in this specialized field. The 2013 award will allow the Austin Fire Department Hazardous Materials Response Team to attend the IAFC International Hazardous Materials Response Teams Conference taking place in Baltimore in June 2013. The Austin Fire Department Hazardous Materials Response Team is comprised of 92 technicians staffing three stations. Their jurisdiction consists of 820,000 residents and in 2011, they responded to over 1,700 hazmat-related incidents.
The award is available to any established incident response team from a fire department, police department or other public-funded program. Qualified applicants are evaluated on leadership qualities, communication abilities, and must have been trained in accordance with NFPA 472, Standard for Competence of Responders to Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction Incidents, and NFPA 473, Standard for Competencies for EMS Personnel Responding to Hazardous Materials/Weapons of Mass Destruction Incidents. The closing date for 2014 applications is September 15, 2013.
The Warren E. Isman Educational Grant has been sponsored by the NFPA since 1993. It was established in 1991 by the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) following Isman’s untimely death. In addition to serving in fire departments in Long Beach, N.Y. and Rockville, Md., Isman spent several years as a Senior Instructor for the University of Maryland Fire Service Extension Program. Isman became Fire Chief in Fairfax, Va. in 1983. He served as Chair of the NFPA Technical Committee on Hazardous
Materials Response Personnel and as Chair of the IAFC Committee on Hazardous Materials, holding a number of offices on the IAFC Board of Directors, including President from 1987 to 1988.
For more information regarding the application process, contact Christine Ellis at +1 617 984-7244.
About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)NFPA is a worldwide leader in fire, electrical, building, and life safety. The mission of the international nonprofit organization founded in 1896 is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. NFPA develops more than 300 codes and standards to minimize the possibility and effects of fire and other hazards. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed at no cost at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
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Contact: Lorraine Carli, Public Affairs Office: +1 617 984-7275
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A new study that found that laboratory workers have a false sense of safety is just the beginning of a larger conversation that the scientific community needs to have about improving lab safety.
An international survey of more than 2,360 scientists and researchers conducted by BioRAFT, Nature Publishing Group, and the University of California Center for Laboratory Safety found that although they respect and understand the need for lab safety measures, in many cases their own lab practices often fall short.
The survey explored a wide variety of topics surrounding lab safety, including researchers’ general perceptions of lab safety measures and practices, whether they felt that they had the right knowledge and tools to be safe in their laboratories and their ability to gauge the gap between researchers’ and supervisors’ views on lab safety. Other findings include:
The vast majority of respondents – 95 percent – report that lab safety is very or quite important to them personally, and 86 percent report that they feel their lab is a safe place to work. Yet, 64 percent state that people work alone in their lab multiple times per week and 54 percent report that they don’t wear a lab coat at all times.
While 91 percent of respondents report that they are aware of and understand the minimum training requirements for their lab duties, 40 percent state that they did not receive safety training on specific agents or hazards.
While 94 percent of senior researchers felt that appropriate safety measures were in place in their labs, only 69 percent of junior researchers agreed.
In addition, 30 percent of respondents reported that they have at some point in their career been aware of at least one major injury requiring medical attention within their lab.
“Scientists think they’re safe, but their compliance with currently accepted best practices, along with the frequency of injuries, indicate that they’re not,” said Nathan Watson, CEO of BioRAFT. “This points to serious problems in how communication around lab safety and its requirements are being conducted.”
Watson said the survey results are just the beginning of a larger conversation that the scientific community needs to have to improve lab safety. James Gibson, executive director of the UC Center for Laboratory Safety and Director of UCLA’s Office of Environment, Health & Safety, agreed: “The results of this survey really provide a roadmap for us, determining where we need to focus our efforts to improve lab safety. In the coming months, we’ll be closely analyzing all of these data, continuing our mission of helping academic and commercial labs all across the world make their labs even safer.” The survey is the first of a series of studies and projects to provide a path for establishing data-driven best practices for laboratory safety. BioRAFT will be publishing a series of posts examining different aspects and implications of the survey.
Researchers and Lab Workers Have a False Sense of Safetyhttp://ehstoday.com/training/researchers-and-lab-workers-have-false-sense-safetyhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

On Jan. 9, Hilda L. Solis submitted her resignation as U.S. Secretary of Labor, telling her fellow Department of Labor employees that she is “proud of our work on behalf of the nation’s working families.” Solis’s resignation comes only weeks after EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced her own resignation on Dec. 27, 2012.
“Leaving the department is one of the most difficult decisions I have ever made, because I have taken our mission to heart. As the daughter of parents who worked in factories, paid their union dues and achieved their goal of a middle class life, and as the first Latina to head a major federal agency, it has been an incredible honor to serve,” Solis wrote in a Jan. 9 letter to Department of Labor employees.
Prior to her appointment as Secretary of Labor, Solis represented the 32nd Congressional District of California in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2001-2009, and she also served 8 years in the California state legislature. She became the first woman to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award in 2000, when she was recognized for her pioneering work on environmental justice issues in California.
In her Jan. 9 letter, Solis highlighted key achievements the Department of Labor has made in the last 4 years, including playing a role in the federally funded job training programs that were completed by 1.7 million people; investing in community colleges to help these institutions provide local, flexible, employer-specific job training; administering more than $67 billion for unemployment insurance benefits, job training and placement and worker protection under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; fostering efforts to help women and homeless veterans; encouraging businesses to see the value of hiring returning military service members; and more.
“And I am particularly proud to say that, as a result of our enforcement efforts, we have saved workers’ lives,” Solis added.
She pointed out that 2011 saw the fewest-ever fatalities in mining, and that workplace fatalities in general industry and construction are at historic lows. During her tenure, Solis took a particular interest in the health and safety risks faced by Latino construction workers and formed the National Action Summit for Latino Worker Health and Safety.
In a Jan. 9 statement, Obama called Solis “a tireless champion for working families.”
“Her efforts have helped train workers for the jobs of the future, protect workers’ health and safety and put millions of Americans back to work,” Obama said. “I am grateful to Secretary Solis for her steadfast commitment and service not only to the Administration, but on behalf of the American people. I wish her all the best in her future endeavors.”
Solis’s departure continues to fuel speculation surrounding OSHA Administrator Dr. David Michaels and whether he will choose or be asked to stay on for President Obama’s second term.
Hilda Solis Resigns as Labor Secretaryhttp://ehstoday.com/standards/hilda-solis-resigns-labor-secretaryhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Safety is no accident, and neither is the success of the project that won the $15,000 grand prize in OSHA’s Worker Safety and Health App Challenge – a Web site developed to help young workers, ages 13-24, access information on common workplace hazards and their rights to a safe workplace.
OSHA’s app challenge awarded those who created tools that best demonstrate the importance of recognizing and preventing workplace safety and health hazards and help young people understand their rights in the workplace. The winning Working Safely Is No Accident site was developed by the University of Tennessee Construction Industry Research and Policy Center and the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
Submissions were designed for Internet browsers, smartphones, feature phones and social media platforms, or as native Windows or Macintosh applications. In all, OSHA awarded prizes totaling $30,000 to four entrants. The panel of judges, including co-hosts of the popular Discovery Channel show “Myth Busters,” Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, selected the Working Safely Is No Accident site for the grand-prize Safety in the Workplace Innovator Award. They also awarded three additional prizes:
Safety and Health Data Award: The United Steelworkers union won this $6,000 prize for its USW Chemical Safety application that allows users to search a Material Safety Data Sheets database for information on workplace exposure limits, health hazards, workplace controls, personal protective equipment, handling and storage and emergency procedures related to hazardous substances in the workplace.
Workers’ Rights Award: This $6,000 prize went to the No Jack – Young Workers’ Safety Campaign website developed by the Montana State Fund (the state’s largest workers’ compensation insurer). This edgy, youth-focused site expands the reach of MSF’s safety and health message to a target audience of workers ages 16-24 by educating them and their employers about workers’ rights to a safe and healthful workplace. http://www.nojack.net/
People’s Choice Award: This $3,000 prize went to the entrant that received the most public votes – Sidharth Garg for his Ergonomics iOS Application. This complete mobile workplace health solution offers ergonomic equipment setup advice, a variety of workplace-specific stretching exercises and programmable reminders to help time breaks and prevent musculoskeletal injuries.
“With so many outstanding submissions, it was difficult to choose the winners,” said Dr. David Michaels, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health. “The winning entries place new technologies in the hands of young workers and their employers, making safety and health resources even more accessible.”
Learn more abou the winning submissions and finalists.
Safety Is No Accident: OSHA Names Winners of App Challengehttp://ehstoday.com/osha/safety-no-accident-osha-names-winners-app-challengehttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Lauren Block succumbed to head injuries she suffered Jan. 2 after falling 15 feet while working as an exotic dancer at a Cleveland strip club.
Lauren Block, a 22-year-old stripper, died Jan. 9 of injuries she suffered several days earlier while working at Christie’s Cabaret in Cleveland. Cleveland police and paramedics were called to the club in the early morning hours of Jan. 2, where they found a bloody and unconscious Block lying on the floor.
Police determined that Block was critically injured when she fell head first over a railing at the club while performing a move in her lap dance routine. They have ruled the incident accidental.
According to the police report, Block was giving a lap dance to a New Jersey man when the accident happened. According to the police report, “He stated that she grabbed the rail, as he was facing away from the balcony, and she tried to complete some sort of jump/dance move, and accidentally went head first over the rail.”
She was rushed to Cleveland’s MetroHealth Medical Center and listed in critical condition. On Jan. 9, her family announced that she had died, saying, “She has passed away but is an organ donor, and we hope this will enable her to save many lives and live on through others.”
The family thanked the staff at MetroHealth, saying, “They worked tirelessly to do all they could to save her life.”
Howard Eberts, area director of OSHA’s Cleveland office, said his office is investigating. According to Eberts, the agency has investigated complaints stemming from employment at similar dance clubs, including complaints about bloodborne pathogens. He said OSHA also investigated a domestic violence incident that took place at a Toledo-area strip club.
As part of the investigation, Eberts said his office is trying to determine if OSHA has jurisdiction in the case. “We are trying to determine if the dancers are employees of the club or if they are independent contractors,” he said. “Independent contractors are not normally covered by OSHA. We’re trying to work out those legal issues.”
Meanwhile, the investigation is ongoing, he said, adding that investigators are looking at things like the distance between the customer’s chair and the guardrail and the height of the guardrail.
One of Block’s former co-workers, Danielle Edwards, told NewsNet5.com, “Even in six inch heels, that railing came up high enough on me that I still had to lean over to see down below. So how she managed to get a majority of her body that far over the railing to where she lost her balance is confusing.”
Christie’s Cabaret did not return a request for comment.
OSHA Investigating the Death of an Exotic Dancer in Clevelandhttp://ehstoday.com/osha/osha-investigating-death-exotic-dancer-clevelandhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Every time I step onto an airplane, I remind myself that air travel is much, much safer than driving. We’re all more likely to be involved in a car crash than we are to experience an airplane crash or flight-related safety scare. In fact, according to the National Safety Council’s “The Odds of Dying” graphic, your lifetime odds of dying in motor vehicle incident are 1 in 98, while your odds of dying in an “air and space transport incident” are 1 in 7,178.
Knowing the facts, however, doesn’t necessarily comfort a nervous airliner passenger. I rack it up to an issue of control – or lack thereof. When we get behind the wheel, we can convince ourselves that we are in control of the car and our own safety. Never mind the weather and visibility variables, human error, traffic, or the distracted, drunk or erratic drivers around us – it’s easy to feel in control when we’re the ones doing the driving. On an airplane, however, we’re hurtling through the sky at high speeds and have absolutely zero control over the flight.
I recently found myself in a nerve-wracking transportation situation where I had no control. And no, it wasn’t on an airplane – it was on a bus. Trust me, I wish had flown for this trip rather than stepping onto that bus.
I’ll share my story in my February Break Room column (spoiler alert: I made it out alive), but for now I want to hear from you. Were you ever a passenger at the mercy of a driver who made you nervous? Ever had a terrifying bus or shuttle ride? Ever had reason to believe your flight was experiencing real trouble? If so, I want to know what happened and how you responded. Please leave a comment here or email me at laura.walter@penton.com (put “Out of Control” in the subject line) to share your story.
Thanks, and be sure to drive safely!
Out of Controlhttp://ehstoday.com/blog/out-controlhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

NFPA Journal features the rebuilding of the St. John Medical Center in Joplin, Mo. after the 2011 tornado Other topics include Superstorm Sandy, emergency preparedness and a look ahead at the 2013 NFPA Conference & Expo
January 10, 2013 — The latest issue of NFPA Journal®, the official magazine of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), features the rebuilding of St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin, Missouri which was devastated in May 2011 by one of the most powerful tornadoes ever recorded.
The NFPA cover story details lessons learned from that event that will lead to the building of a new facility better able to handle the circumstances of living in Tornado Alley.
Also featured in this issue:
Superstorm Sandy and Emergency Preparedness — Can new provisions in NFPA 99 help ensure things go smoother the next time the weather gets heavy?
The Evolution of Nursing Homes — A look back at a half-century of progress in fire safety in nursing homes, ahead of a new requirement that all nursing homes in the U.S. be sprinklered.
NFPA Conference & Expo Preview — A preview of the education sessions and seminars to expect at the NFPA Conference & Expo to be held on June 10-13, 2013 in Chicago, Illinois.
Read the latest digital version of the January/February 2013 NFPA Journal with hot-linked content from the print version. The NFPA Journal mobile app is available through the Apple App Store.
About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)NFPA is a worldwide leader in fire, electrical, building, and life safety. The mission of the international nonprofit organization founded in 1896 is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. NFPA develops more than 300 codes and standards to minimize the possibility and effects of fire and other hazards. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed at no cost at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
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Fans who head out to stadiums, arenas and other sports venues – as well as the workers in those venues and the officials in charge of refereeing the game – may be at risk of exposure to hazardous noise levels, according to two new studies published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene (JOEH).
“These two papers describe a health hazard – high noise levels causing permanent hearing loss – that is prevalent but pretty much unappreciated in the world of sports,” said JOEH Editor in Chief Mark Nicas, Ph.D., CIH. “While severe traumatic injuries and degenerative brain disorders due to concussive blows are recognized as severe hazards among athletes, exposure to high noise likely affects far more individuals (spectators and referees), and the resulting permanent hearing loss decreases the quality of life of those affected.
The study “Occupational and Recreational Noise Exposure from Indoor Arena Hockey Games” examined noise exposures at arenas during collegiate and semi-professional hockey games. While none of the sampled workers were found to have been overexposed to noise based on OSHA criteria, 40 percent of workers and 33 percent of fans at one venue, as well as 57 percent of workers and 91 percent of fans at a second venue, were overexposed based on ACGIH noise exposure criteria, researchers determined.
“One plausible reason that personal sampling resulted in no overexposures to OSHA criteria and only roughly half of the workers were overexposed according to ACGIH criteria may have been due to the time of worker and fan noise exposure,” the study stated. “A typical hockey game lasts 3 hr, yet personal dosimetry is normalized over an 8-hr period, resulting in an assumed 5-hr period of no noise exposure.”
The study’s findings may provide a foundation for noise control implementation in indoor sports arenas.
Blowing the Whistle on Noise Hazards
The second study, “Sports Officials’ Hearing Status: Whistle Use as a Factor Contributing to Hearing Trouble,” examined hearing loss among sports officials. Researchers conducted an online survey of 321 sports officials regarding their exposure to whistle noise and symptoms of hearing loss and tinnitus. Researchers also assessed the acoustic characteristics of commercially available whistles.
“The prevalence of self-reported tinnitus was greater among sports officials than among the male population in the Midwest. Approximately 50% of sports officials reported experiencing tinnitus after officiating. Approximately one-eighth (13%) of sports officials reported almost always experiencing tinnitus after officiating a game or match, and an additional 11% of sports officials reported post-officiating tinnitus more than once a week or more than once a month,” the study stated.
Findings from the survey and related study suggest that whistle contributes to hearing loss among sports officials, researchers said.
These studies suggest that noise controls are necessary in any workplace that poses noise hazards, be it a hockey arena or a more traditional manufacturing setting. Without such controls, workers may be at risk of noise-induced hearing loss.
“We hope these papers will alert the sports world to explore preventive measures,” Nicas said.
JOEH is published jointly by ACGIH and the American Industrial Hygiene Association.
There’s No Sport in Exposing Workers to Noise Hazardshttp://ehstoday.com/industrial-hygiene/there-s-no-sport-exposing-workers-noise-hazardshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

A new year is upon us, and I think it’s time to do a little reflecting. Not on what we might have done wrong or left undone, but rather reflecting on what we DO out there: how we manage things, how we manage ourselves, and how we manage other people.
Over the years, I’ve heard a lot said about what we do in our EHS efforts – that either it’s not enough, or it’s too much, or it’s misguided. Perhaps some of that is true, but mostly, I think what we do and why we do it is misunderstood.
The misunderstanding comes from many levels within an organization. It can been difficult for people to fully appreciate what we do and why we do it. I think a lot of those feelings are similar to what happens when we get stopped by a cop on the road. From the officer’s perspective, he is saving us from crashing into something or someone on the road. The ticket he issues is secondary to him, or at least it is in most cases. He is genuinely concerned about our safety out there, and he feels good when he stops what he knows is unsafe behavior.
But our perspective is quite different. We resent the fact that we were stopped, and we certainly resent the ticket we receive. So the cop becomes the bad guy, and we remain the victim in the scenario. Can you see the similarity between this situation and our work in EHS? Can you perhaps identify a little better with the cop now?
A Positive Reality
No matter our good intentions in the safety world, others may perceive our efforts as something negative. In order for us to succeed we must recognize this, come to grips with it, and turn it around in order to change the negative perception into a positive reality.
As safety and EHS leaders, what we do is try to identify, prevent or stop unsafe and at-risk conditions and behavior. Often, we use applicable regulations or company rules to back up our calls and validate our actions. These regulations or rules become the perceived driver of WHY we do what we do, rather than the fact that we actually care what happens to people. That reality gets lost in translation. And when it does, the worker feels like he is not being managed well, and certainly feels like the victim in the transaction.
So how do we manage ourselves and our actions when the situation becomes negative, or even hostile? Let me share a personal story with you. I spent 22 years in the Marine Corps. Even after spending another 25 years in industry I STILL look like a Marine. You know the look. No neck, a kind of lived-in face, short legs, broad shoulders with thick hands, etc. So when I approach people, they sometimes expect the worst – and prepare for it. Even when I’m on my best behavior, people may still react in a negative way to what I have to say.
This reaction confused me to no end for many years until one day my dear wife said, “Go look into a mirror, really look at yourself – and I mean every feature of your face and body – and then come back and tell me what you saw.” So I did and I was shocked. I did not see this good-looking young man I used to be (at least in MY mind), but rather a used-up old bulldog staring back at me. Now, I’ve always thought bulldogs are cute, and I’ve even had several over the years, but THIS bulldog was not cute. As a matter of fact, he looked kind of mean.
So now I try hard to smile when I talk to people, and lower my voice, and ask questions rather than make statements, and take my share of the responsibility for a worker’s actions. I try to have the courage to ask for input and ways to make things better and safer out there. Most of all, I give a worker my unconditional support when he needs help or has a question. I try to leave him with the understanding that I really do care about him, and that I’m there for him.
Establishing Mutual Trust
This is only the beginning of a totally different way of looking at what I do – what we all do, and how we do it. When we want to help others improve their safety awareness or performance, we must first establish mutual trust. Easy to say, not so easy to accomplish. But here are some suggestions to establish that trust:
Focus on the behaviors, not the person.
Actively listen.
Reinforce the positives you see.
Tie behaviors to personal safety.
Give your commitment and pledge.
Get their commitment and pledge.
Always remember – your workers deserve good leadership.
Once the trust has been earned, it needs to be re-earned every day. Not by what we say, but by what we do. It takes courage to create the strength to take personal action to do what is right. It takes character to be willing to accept responsibility and ownership regarding things that happen to us. Finally, it takes caring to work through the egos, the power trips and the anger that sometimes surface with people we deal with. But you know what? They are worth it.
I hope you know that what you do DOES make a difference, in small ways, and also in very large ways that affect people’s lives. And when you’re having one of those days when you wonder why you do what you do, remember that it’s all worth it. Believe me, my friend – it is.
You Do Make A Differencehttp://ehstoday.com/blog/you-do-make-differencehttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

David Scheinost, age 24, was one of a four-person dive team from the DNR Aquatic Resources Division that was collecting geoduck samples to test for paralytic shellfish poisoning from the Manzanita and Restoration Point geoduck harvest tracts off Washington’s Bainbridge Island on July 24. Two SCUBA (self-contained underwater breathing apparatus) divers had deployed on their third dive of the day when the victim surfaced in distress and called out that he couldn’t breathe. The other divers were unable to reach him before he slipped below the surface and was gone. His body was found 3 days later. The state’s Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) conducted an investigation into the dive-safety policies and practices at DNR and found:
370 occurrences over a 6-month period in which divers were deployed without carrying a reserve breathing-gas supply.
DNR did not ensure a designated person was in charge at the dive location to supervise all aspects of the diving operation affecting the health and safety of the divers.
L&I concluded that these were “willful” violations, which means they were committed with intentional disregard or plain indifference to worker safety and health regulations. The agency issued proposed penalties of $172,900.
“Commercial diving involves risks that unfortunately lead too often to tragedies like this incident,” said Anne Soiza, assistant director of L&I’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health. “These significant risk factors require advance planning, properly maintained equipment and strict adherence to procedures to ensure the protection of workers’ lives on each and every dive.” In addition to the two willful violations, L&I cited DNR for eight serious and five general violations for not complying with standard safe-diving practices and procedures, including failure to:
Have an effective safety and health accident prevention program and training program.
Ensure that divers maintained continual visual contact with each other.
Inspect and maintain equipment.
Have a stand-by diver available while divers are in the water.
In Washington, state and local governments must provide safe workplaces for their employees just like private businesses, including following the minimum workplace safety and health rules. L&I is responsible for workplace safety and health and investigating workplace deaths for all private, state and local government worksites. DNR will have 15 working days to appeal the citation. As with any citation, penalty money paid is placed in the workers’ compensation supplemental pension fund, helping workers and families of those who have died on the job.
Diver Drowns, Death Leads to Citations for the Department of Natural Resourceshttp://ehstoday.com/osha/diver-drowns-death-leads-citations-department-natural-resourceshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

The new EPA Clean Air Standard, which was proposed in June and is consistent with the advice from the agency’s independent science advisors, sets the annual health standard at 12 micrograms per cubic meter and is based on an extensive body of scientific evidence that includes thousands of studies. Many of the large studies used by EPA to set the standard show negative health impacts from PM2.5 at lower levels than previously understood.
EPA also utilized extensive consultation with stakeholders, including the public, health organizations and industry, and after considering more than 230,000 public comments.
The new standard has no effect on the existing daily standard for fine particles or the existing daily standard for coarse particles (PM10), which includes dust from farms and other sources), both of which remain unchanged. By 2020, ninety-nine percent of U.S. counties are projected to meet EPA’s revised health standard without any additional actions.
“These standards are fulfilling the promise of the Clean Air Act. We will save lives and reduce the burden of illness in our communities, and families across the country will benefit from the simple fact of being able to breathe cleaner air,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, who in December announced that she would be leaving the agency.
Fine particle pollution can penetrate deep into the lungs and has been linked to a wide range of serious health effects, including premature death, heart attacks and strokes, as well as acute bronchitis and aggravated asthma among children. A federal court ruling required EPA to update the standard based on best available science. The new standard builds on steps already taken by EPA to slash pollution in communities across the country. Thanks to these steps, 99 percent of U.S. counties are projected to meet the standard without any additional action.
It is expected that fewer than 10 counties, out of the more than 3,000 counties in the United States, will need to consider any local actions to reduce fine particle pollution in order to meet the new standard by 2020, as required by the Clean Air Act. The rest can rely on air quality improvements from federal rules already on the books to meet this new standard.
EPA Received 230,000 Comments on Next Round of Clean Air Standards to Reduce Harmful Soot Pollutionhttp://ehstoday.com/environment/epa-received-230000-comments-next-round-clean-air-standards-reduce-harmful-soot-pollutiohttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Fire Protection Research Foundation to host Suppression, Detection and Signaling Research and Applications Symposium (SUPDET 2013) February 26 – March 1, 2013 Doubletree Orlando at SeaWorld, Orlando, FL
January 14, 2013 – The Fire Protection Research Foundation’s 17th annual Suppression, Detection and Signaling Research and Applications Symposium (SUPDET 2013) will be held February 26 through March 1, 2013 at SeaWorld’s Doubletree Orlando.
This year’s agenda will feature more than 25 papers addressing the latest developments, advances and research on topics including:
The latest in detection research, a new strategy to address the unwanted alarm issue, and detection of wildland fires
The latest in sprinkler protection strategies, and flammability testing for high-hazard challenges, including lithium ion batteries
The latest in clean agent technology research, including a case study on a Halon replacement system at a military jet engine test facility
Aimed at professionals in the fire alarm, suppression and emergency communication industries, the symposium provides attendees the opportunity to exchange ideas, innovations and current research information. Attendees will have the option to choose between the Detection and Signaling Program or the Suppression Program.
Video: NFPA’s Amanda Kimball gives a preview of the 2013 SUPDET.
In addition, a special Suppression Research Charrette (PDF, 61 KB) is being planned for February 27, which all SUPDET 2013 registrants are invited to attend. The Charrette will feature several interactive sessions focused on solutions to protection challenges, including an examination of water mist as an equivalent protection solution to sprinklers for selected suppression scenarios.
Symposium and workshop attendees will be eligible to earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs).
Please contact Eric Peterson at +1 617 984-7271 for more information or register online.
About the Fire Protection Research FoundationThe Fire Protection Research Foundation plans, manages, and communicates research on a broad range of fire safety issues in collaboration with scientists and laboratories around the world. The Foundation is an affiliate of NFPA.
About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)NFPA is a worldwide leader in fire, electrical, building, and life safety. The mission of the international nonprofit organization founded in 1896 is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. NFPA develops more than 300 codes and standards to minimize the possibility and effects of fire and other hazards. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed at no cost at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
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BNSF Railway Co. has signed an accord with OSHA to voluntarily revise the personnel policies OSHA claimed violated whistleblower provisions and discouraged workers from reporting on-the-job injuries.
Section 20109 of the Federal Railroad Safety Act’s (FRSA) protects railroad workers from retaliation for, among other acts, reporting suspected violations of federal laws and regulations related to railroad safety and security, hazardous safety or security conditions and on-the-job injuries.
The terms of BNSF’s accord with OSHA include:
Changing BNSF’s disciplinary policy so that injuries no longer play a role in determining the length of an employee’s probation following a record suspension for a serious rule violation. As of Aug. 31, 2012, BNSF has reduced the probations of 136 employees who were serving longer probations because they had been injured on-the-job.
Eliminating a policy that assigned points to employees who sustained on-the-job injuries.
Revising a program that required increased safety counseling and prescribed operations testing so that work-related injuries will no longer be the basis for enrolling employees in the program. As part of the negotiations leading up to the accord, BNSF removed from the program approximately 400 workers.
Instituting a higher-level review by BNSF’s upper management and legal department for cases in which an employee who reports an on-duty personal injury is also assessed discipline related to the incident giving rise to the injury.
Implementing a training program for BNSF’s managers and labor relations and human resources professionals to educate them about their responsibilities under the FRSA. The training will be incorporated into BNSF’s annual supervisor certification program.
Making settlement offers in 36 cases to employees who filed whistleblower complaints with OSHA alleging they were harmed by one or more of the company’s previous policies.
“Protecting America’s railroad workers who report on-the-job injuries from retaliation is an essential element in OSHA’s mission. This accord makes significant progress toward ensuring that BNSF employees who report injuries do not suffer any adverse consequences for doing so,” said OSHA Administrator Dr. David Michaels. “It also sets the tone for other railroad employers throughout the U.S. to take steps to ensure that their workers are not harassed, intimidated or terminated, in whole or part, for reporting workplace injuries.”
Between August 2007, when OSHA was assigned responsibility for whistleblower complaints under FRSA, and September 2012, OSHA received ­­­1,206 FRSA whistleblower complaints. The number of FRSA whistleblower complaints that OSHA currently receives surpasses the number of whistleblower complaints that OSHA receives under any of the other 21 whistleblower protection statutes it enforces except for Section 11(c) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. More than 60 percent of the FRSA complaints filed with OSHA involve an allegation that a railroad worker has been retaliated against for reporting an on-the-job injury.
Employees who believe that they have been retaliated against for engaging in a protected activity may file a complaint with the secretary of labor for an investigation by OSHA’s Whistleblower Protection Program. Detailed information on employee whistleblower rights is available online at http://www.whistleblowers.gov.
BNSF Railway Takes Steps to Ensure Workers Can Report Injuries Without Fear of Retaliationhttp://ehstoday.com/osha/bnsf-railway-takes-steps-ensure-workers-can-report-injuries-without-fear-retaliationhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

The American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM) has some advice for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: ensure that worker health information is considered as part of electronic health records (EHRs). This can be accomplished, ACOEM said, by incentivizing physicians to add information about a patient’s work life as they build EHRs.
“Approximately 140 million Americans are employed. Their health can affect their ability to work safely and productively, and in turn their jobs can affect their health,” said ACOEM President Karl Auerbach, M.D.
“Although many vendors have developed specialized EHR systems for occupational medicine, EHRs for general group health have not typically included features related to a patient’s work life, such as data fields to code a patient’s occupational risks or work capacity – despite clear evidence that such data can be critically important for quality care in almost any field of medical practice,” he added
Among its recommendations, ACOEM calls for coding in EHRs of a patient’s occupation and industry, as well as the inclusion of information regarding a patient’s “functional status” – health factors that impact the ability to work.
“We believe that work status, as recorded in an occupation and industry code, is important for essentially all medical specialties involved in the care of adult patients,” Auerbach said. “This is the first step in bringing attention to the importance of our medical system taking a more active role in the prevention, management, and assessment of disability.”
ACOEM also provided recommendations for features that would help physicians more readily make the transition to worker-health-related EHRs. These include the need for a robust physician-patient messaging capability; standardized “minimum data sets” to allow efficient information transfer; and strong firewalls to ensure compliance with the confidentiality requirements imposed by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information and Non-Disclosure Act (GINA).
“Incorporating basic occupational demographic information into all EHRs could make important contributions to public health practice and research,” Auerbach said. “Ignoring this fundamental determinant of health puts at risk several important societal priorities: achieving the triple aim of improving the experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing per capita costs of health care; reducing health disparities; improving population health; and providing the nation a productive work force.”
Read ACOEM’s recommendations in full.
ACOEM: Include Worker Health Information in Electronic Health Recordshttp://ehstoday.com/health/acoem-include-worker-health-information-electronic-health-recordshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) charges that Doyle Ronald Wheeler, 36, of Spokane, Wash., collected benefits from 2008 to 2011 on a workplace-injury claim for a neck and back injury. L&I stopped benefit payments after an investigation determined that Wheeler was operating his own businesses – The Pensmith, Ammo Head Design and Ammo Head Hydrographics – while receiving the workers’ compensation benefits.
“The Spokane Valley Voice wrote a story on Wheeler citing his business success while he was receiving time-loss benefits,” commented Elizabeth Smith, manager of L&I’s Fraud Prevention and Compliance Program. “This kind of fraud damages the system. It steals from everyone – taxpayers, employers who pay workers’ compensation premiums and the injured workers who really deserve benefits.”
Wheeler claimed he was unable to work after a slow-moving pickup truck backed into him at his workplace, Toby’s Body and Fender. A videotape of the accident showed Wheeler exhibiting no indication of injury after contact with the vehicle. Videotapes taken after the accident by L&I investigators show Wheeler arriving for his physical therapy appointments, where his shoulder appears to sag and his movements stiffen as he approaches the office. Shortly after his physical therapy appointments, Wheeler resumes moving around with ease.
Wheeler was arraigned in Spokane County Superior Court, and faces a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000. The court also could order him to repay the more than $113,000 in benefits collected through fraud.
Spokane Man Charged with Stealing $113,271 in Workers’ Comp Benefitshttp://ehstoday.com/health/spokane-man-charged-stealing-113271-workers-comp-benefitshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Ninety-three percent of senior-level corporate real estate executives rate the quality of work environments and work experiences as the most urgent issue facing their companies, according to new poll results that prompted an industry association to urge companies to adopt policies that support a “work-life” approach to productivity and employee engagement.
According to CoreNet Global, a corporate real estate professional association that conducted an Industry Leaders Opinion Poll, the nature of work is “changing dramatically, transcending the traditional definitions of productivity to include the concepts of enabling work, employee engagement, employee satisfaction and employee wellness framed around an emerging ‘work-life support’ business model.”
CoreNet Global’s Issues Advocacy Focus Group coordinated a wide-ranging advocacy statement based on input from subject matter experts and the extensive, long-term documentation of best-in-class workplace management practices from more than 7,500 CoreNet Global members worldwide. The position statement regards the quality of work environments and experiences as part of a company’s larger corporate social responsibility (CSR). Positive, engaging work environments can be mutually beneficial to both workers and employers.
“Companies, regardless of size or industry, risk losing competitive advantage by not addressing the new cultural, social and behavioral drivers that determine success in today’s and tomorrow’s business world,” the statement explained. “In this important sense, addressing the quality of work environments and work experiences is becoming a form of risk management against a reputation-driven landscape.”
Like technology, economic conditions and demographics are major change drivers that are requiring companies to look at working environments and work experiences in a different light. Moving forward, these factors will determine a corporation’s competitive advantage and are already impacting the success of many enterprises, the statement adds.
“The new job No. 1 of corporate real estate executives is enabling work and creating the conditions for employees to engage more fully with their coworkers and their companies’ strategic plan or direction,” said CoreNet Global Chairman Jim Scannell, senior vice president, administrative services at The Travelers Companies Inc. “Mobility and other technology advances are blurring the lines between work and personal lives, making effective work practices a lifestyle-management question, not only a series of work-related activities.”
Positive, Engaging Work Environments Benefit Both Workers and Employershttp://ehstoday.com/health/positive-engaging-work-environments-benefit-both-workers-and-employershttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Many creators of training programs fail to consider the company’s organizational structure and culture and instead employ a one-size-fits-all approach, which can be damaging to both the training program and the overall health and safety program. There may be many structural components of an organization that may be considered, but I want to focus on three: organizational design, decision autonomy and the division of labor. These components are critical as they each provide vital contributions to lifeblood of the organization.
Organizational Design
Organizational design has to do with the administration of rules, procedures and policies that determine and direct employee behavior and influence company culture.
The implementation of organizational design can vary from specific and rigid to a more organic approach. Both approaches can be effective. The organic approach allows for greater flexibility and fluidity, which subsequently allows for greater creativity, while a more rigid approach often yields greater efficiency and smoother systems.
It is important that an organization’s training program be designed in accordance with the organization’s design style. If the organization is set up to harbor creativity and nurture free thinking, the training program should encourage and develop this. An organization that sets rigid standards and protocols, meanwhile, would be better served following a methodical and fixed approach to training.
Decision Autonomy
Decision autonomy addresses the amount of discretion given to employees in the completion of their respective work tasks and their influence in organizational goals and processes.
Some organizations allow a high amount of freedom in the decisions and activities of their employees, while others manage and observe every decision and process that employees are involved in. Organizations that allow employees to be involved in decision-making benefit from including training on sound decision-making and efficiency. On the other hand, organizations that rely on managed decision-making should focus on providing training that creates trust and communication between the employee and management.
Regardless of the organizational value regarding decision-making protocols, it is critical that employees be trained to keep with the organization’s value system.
Division of Labor
The method in which an organization divides into labor force and work units (departments) is its division of labor.
As business processes and sustainability efforts evolve, many organizations also have evolved in the manner that their work units are divided and utilized. Some organizations divide their labor based on geography, some do so based on the customer or product base being serviced, and most divide labor from management. The training program should be developed with this in mind. Every part of an organization is not constituted in the same manner, thus the training program for that division of labor should not be constituted in the same manner.
Just as it is necessary to appropriately target the training audience through a comprehensive training needs assessment, it is equally important to specifically address the needs of an organization. Not all organizations are built the same; neither should their training and development program.
Check back soon for Part 2 of this series, which will focus on implementing knowledge, skills and attitudes in the training objectives.
Source: Blanchard, N.P., & Thacker, J. (2010). Effective training, systems, strategies and practices.(Custom 4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
The postings on this site represent the author’s personal opinions and do not represent or reflect the opinions, positions or strategies of AECOM Technology Corp. or its subsidiaries or affiliated entities.
Developing an Effective Training and Development Program, Part 1: Organizational Structurehttp://ehstoday.com/blog/developing-effective-training-and-development-program-part-1-organizational-structurehttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Traditionally, employers focused on helping employees who were injured at work get back to work early with return-to-work (RTW) programs. Recognizing the value of a healthy work force, the commonalities of recovering from on- and off-the-job injuries, the efficiencies of coordinating RTW efforts and the greater risk exposure to discrimination claims when workers are treated differently depending on the reason for their absence, some employers are moving toward integrating occupational and non-occupational cases to reduce absences and lower claims costs.
Whether the program is an integrated occupational/non-occupation RTW or a traditional RTW, the economic and legislative landscape poses challenging issues for employers. Here are 10 common mistakes:
1) Failure to effectively manage the increase in number of employees covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA).
There is now little doubt that the expanded definition of disability under the ADAAA has significantly increased the number of employees who are entitled to accommodations. The definition of disability is so broad that some labor and employment attorneys advise not to fight whether the employee is disabled but to engage in a dialogue to find out the limitations and discuss accommodation possibilities.
The ADAAA requires covered employers (those who have 15 or more employees) to assess accommodations for any worker who might need them, regardless of whether the disability arose from a work or personal injury or illness. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has taken the position that employers with inflexible leave policies violate the ADA by failing to accommodate employees covered by the act.
High profile cases include a $6.2 million settlement involving Sears Roebuck’s’ automatic termination of employees whose leave expired under the company’s policy on workers’ compensation absences, and the nationwide truckload carrier, Interstate Distributor Co., which was order to pay $4.85 million to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit. The EEOC found that the company’s maximum 12 weeks of leave, consistent with FMLA, and its “no restrictions” policy, requiring employees be 100 percent healed and able to perform 100 percent of their job duties before they could return to work, violated the ADA.
The linchpin of an employer’s obligation to a qualified individual with a disability under the ADA is the interactive process for reasonable accommodation. While the ADA doesn’t prohibit employers from having a maximum leave policy, exceptions to the policy must be made on a case-by-case basis to reasonably accommodate people with disabilities.
Also, a program that limits the availability of transitional jobs to a certain class of workers – those who are injured on the job – risks violating the ADA unless there is a legitimate business reason for doing so. The EEOC found Jewel-Osco violated the ADA by prohibiting disabled employees from participating in the company’s 90-day light duty program if they were not injured on the job.
As a federal law, the ADA supersedes state workers’ compensation laws, and therefore, its directives provide the floor level protection for disabled individuals. State workers’ compensation laws can provide more protection, but not less. Properly structured, RTW programs can decrease the ADA exposure.
2) Insist employees be released to “full duty” before returning to work.
Considerable evidence exists about the value of RTW programs that provide a means for employees to transition back into their full-duty jobs with responsibilities and tasks modified for short periods of time. Insisting on a return to “full duty” increases workers’ compensation costs and heightens the possibility that the injured employee will fall prey to a “disability syndrome” – the failure to return to work when it is medically possible.
An individual’s sense of self-worth and motivation often comes from the ability to be productive. When that is taken away, depression can set in or an unfounded belief in the seriousness of the injury can extend the absence and drive up costs.
The EEOC has also spoken on this issue. In 2011, Supervalu Inc., American Drug Stores and Jewel Food Stores Inc. were found to have violated the ADA with inflexible leave policies that prohibited employees on one-year paid disability leave from returning to work unless they could return without any accommodation to full service and had no physical or mental restrictions. If a worker still has medical restrictions at the point of maximum medical improvement, the employer needs to compare the worker’s abilities with the essential functions of the job, not with some arbitrary standard of 100 percent fitness for work.
EHS Today Online Feature: 10 Costly Return-to-Work Mistakeshttp://ehstoday.com/health/ehs-today-online-feature-10-costly-return-work-mistakeshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

OSHA found 50 alleged serious and eight repeat safety and health violations during a comprehensive investigation at the Hoover Dam Hydroelectric Power Plant located 30 miles southeast of Las Vegas. The U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation maintains and operates the power plant.
“We are concerned to have found this number of serious safety and health violations at the Hoover Dam plant,” said Ken Atha, OSHA’s regional administrator in San Francisco. “We expect to work closely with the agency to rectify these deficiencies and provide a safe and healthful work environment for employees.”
The 50 serious safety and health violations include fall and electrical hazards, a lack of required guards on machinery, inadequate personal protective equipment, lead contamination and the potential for overexposure to hexavalent chromium. OSHA also identified violations for failing to properly maintain and inspect firefighting equipment, provide unobstructed access to emergency exits and insufficient lockout/tagout procedures for energy sources that could lead to amputations. A serious violation occurs when there is substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result from a hazard about which the employer knew or should have known.
The eight repeat violations include failing to anchor a drill press, implement proper machine guarding, correct multiple electrical violations and properly mount and maintain portable fire extinguishers. A violation is designated as a repeat violation when OSHA has previously notified an employer of the same or a similar violation of a standard, regulation, rule or order at any of its facilities within the last 5 years. OSHA inspected 25 Bureau of Reclamation facilities nationwide over the past 5 years, including a previous investigation at the Hoover Dam in October 2010.
The Bureau of Reclamation has 15 business days from receipt of the notices to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA’s area director or appeal the notices by submitting a summary of its position on the unresolved issues to OSHA’s regional administrator.
OSHA Floods Hoover Dam Hydroelectric Power Plant with 58 Safety and Health Violationshttp://ehstoday.com/osha/osha-floods-hoover-dam-hydroelectric-power-plant-58-safety-and-health-violationshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced that the influenza season in the United States started early this year, with flu activity remaining high and likely to continue for some time. In response to these high illness rates, a medical expert offers four strategies to help employers prepare for the possibility that the flu could impact their businesses.
“An organization can be severely impacted by people coming to work when they’re sick,” said Mary Capelli-Schellpfeffer, M.D., medical director of Loyola University Health System Occupational Health Services. “We know illness can spread from person to person, causing entire work groups to be affected. But less obvious is how job performance, organization, productivity, creativity and financial stability can all be affected.”
When a workplace is impacted by the flu, productivity can take a hit – not only from employee absences or presenteeism, but also by creating a distraction that causes coworkers to focus on the illness instead of their jobs. Additionally, it can affect how outsiders, such as clients and customers, view the stability of the company.
“Encourage employees who are sick to use their sick time. Some don’t know they have it because they’ve never had to use it,” she added. “Put a plan in place now so if you have a deadline there are procedures in place – like how to work from home. By making small changes, we can protect each other and our businesses.”
Capelli-Schellpfeffer offers the following four tips to help businesses prepare for a flu outbreak in the workplace:
1. Communicate your policy on attendance for sick employees.Make sure employees are aware of the company’s attendance policy and identify a point person for questions. Give examples to illustrate when employees should stay home due to sickness.
2. Prepare for unexpected absences.It’s possible that schools and daycares could close due to illness, forcing parents to leave work to care for their children. Sick employees also should be sent home to avert spreading the infection. This may cause staffing problems. Be sure your company has a plan in place to meet staffing needs in such cases.
3. Good housekeeping equals good health.Regular surface cleaning minimizes germ exposure. Eliminate clutter on counters, especially around sinks and food preparation areas, to ease the job of wiping down these often germ-filled areas and promote quick drying.
4. Focus your company’s culture on health.This includes having a prevention program that offers annual flu shots, informs employees about ways to stay healthy and what to do to avoid infectious illness. Also, find prominent places to hang posters that remind people to wash their hands before meals, after sneezing or coughing and when moving between tasks.
“Though there is a cost involved in promoting wellness, it is small in comparison to the pricey hit companies take when their work force is impaired by illness,” said Capelli-Schellpfeffer. “A flu shot program is an investment that yields big returns for businesses.”
And the bottom line for workers who contract the flu? Stay at home.
“If you’re sick, you shouldn’t be in the workplace,” Capelli-Schellpfeffer said. “It interrupts business and puts others at risk of infection.”
4 Ways to Prepare Your Business for a Flu Outbreakhttp://ehstoday.com/health/4-ways-prepare-your-business-flu-outbreakhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

An increasing number of U.S. employees are employed as “contingent” workers, an arrangement that can expose them to occupational safety and health risks not experienced by a permanent work force. A new report from the Center for Progressive Reform (CPR) offers seven strategies to protect continent employees from unsafe working conditions.
The white paper “At the Company’s Mercy: Protecting Contingent Workers from Unsafe Working Conditions,” by CPR member scholars Martha McCluskey, Thomas McGarity, Sidney Shapiro and Senior Policy Analyst Matthew Shudtz, highlights the occupational challenges facing contingent workers in the United States and suggests strategies to improve their working conditions.
“Their shared experience is one of little job security, low wages, minimal opportunities for advancement, and, all too often, hazardous working conditions,” the white paper says of workers whose employment is contingent upon short-term fluctuations in demand for employees. “When hazards lead to work-related injuries, the contingent nature of the employment relationship can exacerbate the negative consequences for the injured worker and society.”
Employers of contingent workers often do not pay for workers’ compensation or health insurance and can simply hire replacements when workers are injured – factors that give these employers little financial incentive to eliminate safety hazards or help injured workers return to work. Additionally, employers sometimes misclassify contingent workers as “independent contractors” in order to claim the workers will pay their own taxes and insurance – a practice that reduces the employer’s expenses while also removing the incentive to create a safe workplace, the paper states.
The white paper includes case studies on contingent workers in four industries: farming, construction, warehousing and hospitality. The construction industry, for example, employs a disproportionate number of contingent workers in the United States. Most of these workers are young men, and many are Hispanic or Latino, performing dangerous jobs that have a high risk for falls, nail-gun injuries, musculoskeletal injuries and more.
7 Strategies to Improve Safety for Contingent Workershttp://ehstoday.com/construction/7-strategies-improve-safety-contingent-workershttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Total Safety — The Best Minds in the Business. This video demonstrates proper procedures for confined space entry. For more information, or for help with your confined space and gas detection needs, please visit www.totalsafety.com
Related Media
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Comfort, Style and Protection
Driven To Distraction Series
TotalSafety – The Best Minds in the Businesshttp://ehstoday.com/archive/totalsafety-best-minds-businesshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

A new MSHA rule will allow the agency to enforce its existing pattern of violations rule with more consistency, targeting mines with recurring safety violations.
A new rule revises the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s pattern of violations (POV) regulation to ensure that mine operators monitor and address the most hazardous safety problems in their mines.
The POV final rule, which reflects several recommendations made by the Labor Department’s Office of the Inspector General in a September 2010 report, strengthens MSHA’s ability to deal with the nation’s most dangerous, troubling mines and mine operators. It places the agency in a better position to identify operators that demonstrate a disregard for the health and safety of miners and have not responded to other enforcement measures.
“There has been recognition by many that the system has been broken, with no mine being placed on POV status until 2011 – 33 years after the law went into effect,” said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor – MSHA. “MSHA should not be prevented from taking action to protect the lives of miners for months, or even years, while we await the final outcome of citations and orders that a mine operator can easily contest. The new rule addresses those flaws.”
The tragedy at the Upper Big Branch Mine should not be forgotten, said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “It exacted a terrible toll on the nation, coal miners’ families and coal companies,” she noted. “Over the last 3 years, the Labor Department has undergone a serious and comprehensive evaluation of mine safety practices, and that has led to reforms to protect America’s miners. The rule we are announcing today will hold mine operators accountable when they disregard life-saving safety measures.”
The final rule represents one of MSHA’s highest priority regulatory initiatives, said Main, adding it addresses Congress’ intent that this regulation encourage chronic violators to comply with the Mine Act and MSHA’s health and safety standards.
“We think that this final rule will help prevent another tragedy such as occurred at the Upper Big Branch Mine,” added Main. “It promotes consistency in applying the POV notice as an enforcement tool, provides for a more open and transparent process, emphasizes operators’ responsibility to comply with safety and health standards and monitor their own compliance, and more effectively achieves the statutory intent of the Mine Act.”
New MSHA Rule Takes Aim at the Nation’s Most Dangerous Mineshttp://ehstoday.com/msha/new-msha-rule-takes-aim-nation-s-most-dangerous-mineshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

RILA members include more than 200 retailers, product manufacturers, and service suppliers, which together account for more than $1.5 trillion in annual sales, millions of American jobs and more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers domestically and abroad.
The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) is rolling out an initiative designed to streamline the safety data sheet (SDS) process under which chemical information is provided by suppliers to retailers. The association represents major U.S. retailers such as Target, Walmart, Lowe’s, the Home Depot, Sears, jcpenney and Walgreens.
Retailers require detailed information to safely handle chemical products in accordance with various regulations promulgated by federal agencies such as OSHA, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and EPA. In an effort to enhance efficiency in the requests made by retailers, RILA created an SDS template, which aligns with the 16-section format prescribed by OSHA’s hazard communication (HazCom) standard.
“The recent changes to the HazCom standard provide an opportunity for the retail industry to upgrade requests for chemical information since chemical manufacturers must rewrite their SDS’s based on the global harmonization criteria,” said Lisa LaBruno, senior vice president of retail operations for RILA. “Consistent retailer requests will enhance supply chain efficiency and communication regarding chemical information, as well as assist retailers in properly handling chemical products for the benefit of customers, workers, communities and the environment.”
Leading retailers and providers of product safety compliance and information services helped drive the SDS initiative forward.
“As a founding sponsor of RILA’s SDS Working Group, we applaud RILA’s efforts to help retailers and manufacturers more efficiently exchange chemical and product information,” said Jeffrey Starr, vice president of marketing at 3E Co. “We believe RILA’s SDS template will be extremely valuable to retailers and manufacturers alike, as they strive to achieve conformance, mitigate risk and enhance workplace safety.”
EHS Today is partnering with RILA to present a general session at the organization’s annual Retail Asset Protection (RAP) Conference April 28-May 1, 2013 in Orlando. The RAP conference is attended by more than 1,000 retail loss prevention executives, and safety is a key focus of the conference program.
The session will be titled “America’s Safest Companies: Building a Culture of Safety.” Companies striving for world-class leadership in safety must be willing to embrace, celebrate and aspire to transformational leadership, with accountability at all levels of the organization. Representatives from three companies named America’s Safest Companies by EHS Today – Caterpillar, Dow Corning and Honeywell Aerospace – will discuss their efforts to achieve world-class safety results, reveal what transformed their safety culture from average to exceptional and share their leading indicators for measuring success.
Retailers Launch Safety Data Sheet Initiativehttp://ehstoday.com/osha/retailers-launch-safety-data-sheet-initiativehttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

According to an infographic from Graphic Products, not all cities in America are created equal when it comes to death rates from occupational injuries. Smaller cities built around a specific industry, for example, are more likely to have dangerous work environments.
The infographic, “Deadliest and Safest Cities to Work In,” reveals that Midland, Texas, is considered the “most dangerous” city for workers, based on a rate of 85.53 worker fatalities per 100,000 (that works out to be 12 fatalities for the city’s 140,308 population). Workers in the Sacramento-Arden-Arcade-Roseville, Calif., region, meanwhile, enjoy the lowest rate at 5.97 fatalities per 100,000 (that’s 13 fatalities in a population of 2,176,235).
To learn more, view the infographic below:
Infographic: Is Your City One of the Deadliest for Workers?http://ehstoday.com/safety/infographic-your-city-one-deadliest-workershttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

In Part 1 of this series, we examined the role organizational structure plays in developing an effective training and development program. In this second and final installment, we’ll discuss implementing knowledge, skills and attitudes (KSAs) in your training objectives.
Learning objectives must be established and adhered to when developing a training program – otherwise, training activities may bear few results. Regardless of the training subject matter, training objectives should always address each component of the acronym KSA, which stands for knowledge, skills and attitudes.
Each KSA element is an important part of learning and development. Training (regardless of the subject) should result in improved knowledge, improved skills and an improved attitude toward the subject matter and training process. Utilizing these elements as the framework of objective development will result in tangible, measurable outcomes.
“K” is for Knowledge
As the body of information – found in the form of facts, procedures and protocols – developed as a result of the learning, knowledge is clearly essential.
This first learning objective is broken out into three sub-divisions: declarative knowledge, which consists of information that is placed into one’s memory; procedural knowledge, which consists of information added to current knowledge and intended for immediate use; and strategic knowledge, which has to do with one’s understanding of how, when and why information is used.
Your training program should always aim to increase the knowledge base of the training audience. Training that fails in this objective is often considered by the training audience to be a waste of time, for obvious reasons.
“S” is for Skills
Knowledge alone isn’t enough: training should include proactive instruction to carry out the knowledge learned. This leads to the second component of KSA – skills.
A skill involves the application of knowledge in order to accomplish something. Two levels of skills include compilation, defined as a lower or remedial level of skill; and automaticity, a higher/advanced level of skill where one has mastered the process of doing something and it becomes automatic (hence the name).
I have participated in many training programs that have told me what to do but have left me wondering how to do it. Students must not only be provided with what to do, but should also be trained and practiced in how to do it. Skills cannot be developed without practice.
“A” is for Attitudes
The third desired outcome of learning encompasses one’s beliefs and/or opinions, which are manifested in behavior. These factors will determine a student’s motivation to learn and will subsequently affect one’s ability to gain both knowledge and skills.
Attitudes are affected by feelings towards the subject matter and the overall learning process. Most people who have led a training class or seminar experienced the effects of a participant’s negative attitude toward the training. This is often the result of a bad experience related to a prior training or the subject matter. It should be the goal of every training program to improve attitudes and behaviors toward both the training process and the subject matter. This must be considered and addressed in the development phase. Failure to do this will result it low retention levels and a failed training program.
The old saying, “fail to plan, plan to fail,” holds very true when establishing objectives, as programs that lack tangible and planned learning objectives often fail. Ensure learning objectives are your primary focus as you plan and develop a safety training program. Without a solid foundation of learning objectives, your training program has no more than a chance at success; with learning objectives, you’re on your way to successful program development.
Source: Blanchard, N.P., & Thacker, J. (2010). Effective training, systems, strategies and practices. (Custom 4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
The postings on this site represent the author’s personal opinions and do not represent or reflect the opinions, positions or strategies of AECOM Technology Corp. or its subsidiaries or affiliated entities.
Developing an Effective Training and Development Program, Part 2: Implementing KSAshttp://ehstoday.com/blog/developing-effective-training-and-development-program-part-2-implementing-ksashttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

The percent of union membership among wage and salary workers in the United States declined from 11.8 percent in 2011 to 11.3 percent in 2012, according to a new report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Last year’s decline appears to be part of a trend: The United States counted 17.7 million union workers in 1983 compared to 14.4 million union workers in 2012.
“Union jobs are good jobs,” said Deputy Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris. “They are essential to growing and maintaining a strong middle class, which is vital to the economic health of this country. It is critical that we continue to ensure all people have a voice in the workplace, and protect the right to organize and bargain collectively.”
The BLS data shows that in 2012, full-time union members enjoyed higher median weekly earnings – $943 – than nonunion full-time workers, who earned a median of $742 a week. Harris added that the other data has suggested that union members have greater access to employment-based benefits such as health insurance, retirement savings plans and sick and vacation leave.
“Together, strong wages and benefits are good for workers and good for families,” he said.
Additional highlights from BLS’s data on union membership include:
Public-sector workers had a union membership rate (35.9 percent) more than five times higher than that of private-sector workers (6.6 percent).
Workers in education, training and library occupations and in protective service occupations had the highest unionization rates, at 35.4 and 34.8 percent, respectively.
Sales and related occupations (2.9 percent) and farming, fishing and forestry occupations (3.4 percent) had the lowest unionization rates.
Black workers were more likely to be union members than were white, Asian, or Hispanic workers.
The union membership rate was higher for men at 12 percent than for women at 10.5 percent in 2012. This gap has narrowed considerably since 1983, when the rate for men was 24.7 percent vs. 14.6 percent for women.
By age, union membership rate was highest among workers ages 55 to 64 (14.9 percent) and lowest among those ages 16 to 24 (4.2 percent).
New York continued to have the highest union membership rate at 23.2 percent, while North Carolina again had the lowest rate at 2.9 percent. (View this table to see a breakdown of union membership by state.)
The data on union membership were collected as part of the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of about 60,000 households that obtains information on employment and unemployment among the nation’s civilian non-institutional population ages 16 and over.
Union Membership Rate in the United States on the Declinehttp://ehstoday.com/safety/union-membership-rate-united-states-declinehttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Wild land ground crews from West Metro fire district use hoses to work on taking control of the Green Mountain wildfire in Lakewood, Colo., in August 2008.
With a mild winter, relatively warmer weather in general, and drought conditions expected to continue in 2013, the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) urges home and business owners to take action now to effectively reduce their wildfire risk.
“Wildfire losses have been on the rise during the past couple of years in several states, with Colorado, Texas and Wyoming being particularly hard hit,” noted Julie Rochman, IBHS president and CEO. “2013 is shaping up to be another very dangerous year, because of a combination of weather-related factors.”
According to State of the Climate, released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2012 was the warmest year on record in the contiguous United States. The average temperature in 2012 was a full degree higher (55.3 degrees Fahrenheit) than the previous record set in 1998.
In addition, warm temperatures were coupled with severe drought. Last year was the driest year in the contiguous United States since 1988, according to NOAA. In Nebraska and Wyoming, it was the driest year on record. For 2013, 10 states are already experiencing “exceptional drought” conditions, while snow levels throughout the country are nearing record lows, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center.
The National Interagency Fire Center reports that more than 67,000 wildfires burned more than 9.2 million acres throughout the country in 2012. This was the third-largest number of acres burned in the United States during the 13-year period of record. Warm temperatures and drought conditions will both contribute to an increase in the risk of wildfire this year.
“It is critical that individuals and communities vulnerable to wildfire act now to reduce their risks,” Rochman stated. “Property owners can use our effective risk-reduction tools to build what is essentially a ‘self-defense’ system for their property during a wildfire. By doing so, they can evacuate if necessary and still hope to find their home or business intact after a fire moves through the area.”
IBHS wildfire resources are available at DisasterSafety.org. Specific resources include:
IBHS Wildfire Home Assessment & Checklist
IBHS Wildfire Brochures: Residential and Farms and Ranches
IBHS Regional Wildfire Retrofit Guides
IBHS is a leading national expert on preparing for and repairing and rebuilding structures after a catastrophe to make them more disaster-resistant.
Take Precautions Now; Wildfire Risk Predicted to be High in 2013http://ehstoday.com/emergency-management/take-precautions-now-wildfire-risk-predicted-be-high-2013http://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

A few weeks ago, I asked EHS Out Loud Blog readers they’d ever felt nervous (or, okay, terrified) while at the mercy of drivers who seemed a little out of control. Here are a few of the responses I received:
Pass the Barf Bag
Tim Walters wrote in to describe a – how should I put this? An unappetizing bus ride:
Our church was on a trip to the Passion Play in Arkansas one summer and we chartered a bus for 52 passengers. The drive was a long one, about 9 hours, and the roads were hilly, curvy and narrow. Our driver had apparently been an Indy 500 driver at one time because he was cutting no slack to the traffic, roads or hills. He kept assuring us that he had made this trip many, many times and knew the roads very well. That didn’t make any of us feel safer.
About 6.5 hrs into the trip, someone had gotten carsick from all the movement. That was the beginning of a “domino effect.” We had to stop and get more barf bags at a Walmart on the way … not a pleasurable experience.
Dozing Driver
Steven C. Hulka, CIH, was traveling with troop 603 of the League City Texas Boy Scouts when he realized the driver might need a little help:
Our Boy Scout troop hired a commercial bus company last year to take us from Houston to Colorado for a summer camp. We drove straight through, taking about 15 hours. This was a big touring bus. We had engine trouble and lost a few hours in Dallas getting it fixed. We pressed on with the original driver. Drivers can only drive for so many hours and we met a new driver in northern Texas.
When the sun went down, everyone started going to sleep. I was trying to sleep, but the bus was making some short swerving motions that made me feel like I was jerking right and then left in my seat. I knew there was no traffic around us and we were on a good but single-lane road. I sat up and watched through the windshield from my seat toward the rear of the bus. Sure enough, the bus would drift to a side and then correct. The driver must have been nodding off with a full bus of kids and adults on board.
I felt out of control but had to do something so I walked up to the driver and asked how he was doing. Just fine, he said, but I knew that he wasn’t, so I stayed up there and talked to him for about an hour and got to know him but really wanted to keep him awake. During the conversation, he admitted casually that the delay in switching drivers caused him not to get the sleep he wanted to have before driving and admitted that he hadn’t slept much the night before. After the trip, I insisted to the Scout leader and bus company hirer that he file a formal complaint with the company. I didn’t want to get the driver in trouble, but this could have ended up way worse had I not interceded.
Shake, Rattle & Roll
Finally, Walters adds an uncomfortable flight to his list of travel terrors:
On a flight from LAX to Hong Kong, we experienced a little “turbulence” flying over a typhoon. The ride wasn’t bad until one particular moment, about 9 hrs into the flight, when our 737 AirBus felt like it dropped 1000 feet straight down. There were a couple people going back to their seats when this happened, and they ended up on the floor.
The fear I saw in the flight attendants’ eyes was all I needed to see … and apparently I wasn’t the only one to see that fear. It took some time to get folks to calm back down after that, and the rest of the flight into Hong Kong, about 5 more hours, was very turbulent … lots of “shake, rattle and roll” going on. To this day, I won’t sit in a wing seat – those things were flopping like a bird in flight and I thought they would break off at any moment.
Yikes. I think it’s safe to say you can find me sitting firmly in one place for the rest of the day.
Transportation Terrorshttp://ehstoday.com/blog/transportation-terrorshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

These 10 steps can help you stop procrastinating and move you along the path to productivity at work.
Here are 10 ways to get out of the quicksand of procrastination and reap numerous benefits, which include improved productivity, enhanced mood, less stress, better coworker relationships, a sense of accomplishment and restored reputation at work as a “doer.”
1. Identify the situation – First, write down the specific task you’ve been putting off. For example, “I have to convert all of my client contacts and notes into the new file-sharing software system and learn how to navigate its tools and folders.” Writing down the task helps you dial in the job at hand.
2. Pinpoint your emotions – What’s preventing you from diving in to this task? It typically is one or more of three core emotions. Perhaps, to use the above example, you’re intimidated by all the new bells and whistles you’ll have to learn (fear). Or you’re resentful about having to do this when the old system worked perfectly well (anger). Or you’re bummed that you’re just not tech savvy (sadness). This step helps you see the act of dragging your heels for what it truly is: an emotional reaction.
3. Deal with those emotions – It’s helpful to know that emotions – sadness, anger and fear – are just pure energy in your body. Look at the word “emotion.” It’s energy (e) in motion. Take some time in private to express those emotions constructively. By crying to express sadness, punching or yelling into a pillow or stomping around to release the anger, or doing exaggerated shivering for the fear, you give yourself permission to express the emotion. The energy dissipates and you won’t feel stuck. It’s like letting steam out of a pressure cooker.
4. Do some planning – Good planning is the foundation of success for most any project. It’s helpful to write it down so you have it for ready reference. Start by getting clear on your goal. Your goal is your beacon to keep you on track in treacherous waters. For example, “I want to be facile with this new software so it’s a useful tool, not an impediment to my progress.” Having a clear and precise idea of your goal will keep you oriented and stay motivated.
5. Find some “truths” – Identify sabotaging thoughts that are hanging in the wings, ready to pounce in a weak moment, then come up with a couple of truths to contradict them. For example, if you continually tell yourself “I’ll never be able to learn all this,” you might say to yourself, “I can do this” or “If others can learn this, so can I.” That’s a plain and simple truth. To neutralize your frustration at having to do this task, you might say, “I’m doing this because I want to be a team player” or “My boss thinks I’m the best person to do this.”
6. Break your goal into a series of small, doable steps – You’ve envisioned the task, dealt with what’s been holding you back and fixed your destructive thinking. Completing the task requires deciding when you’ll get started and figuring out a doable step-by-step game plan. Write it down, schedule it and commit to it. Then go on a mental journey, plotting out each part of the task, including details such as whom you will talk with and what about, where and when you’ll be working, and how long you expect each part to take.
7. Anticipate roadblocks – Once you’ve created a game plan, step back and imagine challenges and obstacles that are likely to pop up along the way. For example, other projects with shorter deadlines might land on your desk. How will you tackle such challenges in order to keep moving forward with the big task at hand? For every such scenario, have a tactic ready for sticking to your original plan. You may also want to find someone to support your efforts and with whom you can check in on a regular basis.
8. Take the leap – With all this preparation, it’s time to tackle the task you’ve put off. Before you do, acknowledge your emotions – whether it’s anger, fear or sadness. Take just a minute or two and release the pent-up emotion in a physical and constructive way. Without the emotional energy dragging you down, you’ll feel prepared to take the leap and be amazed how easy it is as you just focus on one step at a time.
9. Battle resistance – As you move through the task, you’re likely to meet with resistance in the form of excuses, bad moods and discouragement. Meet resistance with tenacity and stubbornness, and continue to deal with any emotions that surface. Say to yourself: “I can do this. I’ll feel better when I handle this.” Say it over and over until it’s set in your mind. Any time you feel discouraged or are tempted to procrastinate, refocus on the goal.
10. Focus on the upside – Getting through a daunting task is incredibly satisfying. Praise each little step along the way. Remind yourself at every step that you’ll feel incredibly virtuous when you get the task off your plate once and for all. Accomplishing what you’re avoiding will simplify your work life. You’ll feel more energetic. You’ll sleep better at night.
About the author: Jude Bijou, MA, MFT, is a respected psychotherapist, professional educator, and workshop leader. Her theory of Attitude Reconstruction evolved over the course of more than 30 years working with clients as a licensed marriage and family therapist, and is the subject of her award-winning book, Attitude Reconstruction: A Blueprint for Building a Better Life.
10 Steps to Stop Procrastinating (And Be More Productive at Work)http://ehstoday.com/health/10-steps-stop-procrastinating-and-be-more-productive-workhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

University of Utah psychology professors David Sanbonmatsu, Ph.D. (left), and David Strayer, Ph.D., used this driving simulator in some of their research on cell phone use and driving.
Drivers who believe they are skilled at multitasking – such as taking a phone call while on the road – actually are the least likely to be capable of safely doing so, a new study reveals. In fact, drivers who multitask may be inclined to do so because they have difficult focusing closely on even a single task.
Senior authors David Sanbonmatsu, Ph.D., and David Strayer, Ph.D., both psychology professors at the University of Utah, say their new study suggests drivers should not harbor the illusion that they are better than average at multitasking while driving. Citing humorist Garrison Keillor’s catchphrase about kids in Keillor’s fictitious hometown, Strayer said people who use cell phones while driving “all think they live in Lake Wobegon, where everybody is above average. But it’s a statistical impossibility.”
“One of the main reasons people multitask is because they think they are good at it,” Sanbonmatsu explained. “But our study suggests people rarely are as good at multitasking as they think they are.”
Fractured Focus
The study ran 310 undergraduate psychology students through a battery of tests and questionnaires to measure actual multitasking ability, perceived multitasking ability, cell phone use while driving, use of a wide array of electronic media and personality traits such as impulsivity and sensation-seeking. Key findings include:
Drivers most capable of multitasking effectively are not those who are most likely to engage in multiple tasks simultaneously. Instead, people who score high on a test of actual multitasking ability tend not to multitask because they are better able to focus attention on the task at hand.
The more people multitask by talking on cell phones while driving or by using multiple media at once, the more they lack the actual ability to multitask, and their perceived multitasking ability “was found to be significantly inflated.” In fact, 70 percent of participants thought they were above average at multitasking, which is statistically impossible.
People with high levels of impulsivity and sensation-seeking reported more multitasking, with one exception: People who talk on cell phones while driving tend not to be impulsive, indicating that cell phone use is a deliberate choice.
The research suggests that people who engage in multitasking often do so not because they have the ability, but “because they are less able to block out distractions and focus on a singular task.”
“If you have people who are multitasking a lot, you might come to the conclusion they are good at multitasking,” Strayer said. “In fact, the more likely they are to do it, the more likely they are to be bad at it.”
The researchers concluded that the study “appears to further bolster arguments for legislation limiting the use of cell phones while operating a motor vehicle.”
Sanbonmatsu and Strayer conducted the study with University of Utah co-authors Jason Watson, an associate professor of psychology, and Nathan Medeiros-Ward, a doctoral student in psychology. The study was funded by the American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety and was published Jan. 23 in PLOS ONE, an online journal of the Public Library of Science.
Multitasking and Distracted Driving: You Are Not the Exceptionhttp://ehstoday.com/safety/multitasking-and-distracted-driving-you-are-not-exceptionhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

NFPA Board of Directors appoints new members to Standards Council
January 24, 2013—The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Board of Directors appointed two new members to serve on the Association’s Standards Council for a three-year term effective January 2013: James E. Golinveaux of North Kingstown, R.I., and Bonnie E. Manley of Norfolk, Mass.
With 30 years of experience in the fire protection industry including both contracting and manufacturing, Golinveaux is currently a senior fellow of Water Suppression Products for Tyco Fire Protection Products. His current role applies his experience globally in the fire protection industry to develop advancements in water-based fire protection devices and systems. He currently holds 12 U.S. Patent families in Automatic Sprinkler Technologies. He is a past member of the Board of Trustees for the Fire Protection Research Foundation, as well as multiple other boards and councils including the Factory Mutual Advisory, AFSA, NFSA, International Fire Sprinkler Association and the Fire Sprinkler Association of Brazil. Golinveaux is also a subject matter expert for past two editions of the NFPA Fire Protection Handbook and the NFPA 13 Handbook on Storage and Residential Sprinklers. He has served on NFPA 13 Technical Committee for the past 18 years and has chaired the storage task group for the last 13 years. Additionally, he is a technical committee member of NFPA 88A, 101 and 5000.
Manley, P.E., M.ASCE, is a regional director for the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). Since joining AISI in 2006, her primary focus has been the structural and material provisions of the model codes and standards. Over the years, this has involved collaboration with numerous external organizations and committees including ASCE, BSSC, FEMA, ICC, NCSEA, and NFPA. She is a current member of the NFPA Correlating Committee on Building Code and the Technical Committee on Structures, Construction and Materials. Manley also serves on the ASCE Codes and Standards Committee, which oversees their codes and standards development activities, maintains their ANSI accreditation, and enforces their rules for standards committees. Prior to joining AISI, she worked as a senior structural engineer for NFPA. Manley earned a Master of Science in Civil Engineering and a Master of Science in Construction Engineering and Management at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She has a Bachelor of Science in Structural Engineering from the University of California, San Diego, and is a registered professional engineer in Massachusetts.
The NFPA Standards Council, a 13 member body appointed by the board of directors of NFPA, is charged with overseeing the NFPA codes and standards making process. Generally, the duties of the Council include supervising activities related to NFPA codes and standards development, acting as administer of rules and regulations, and serving as an appeals body.
About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)NFPA is a worldwide leader in fire, electrical, building, and life safety. The mission of the international nonprofit organization founded in 1896 is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. NFPA develops more than 300 codes and standards to minimize the possibility and effects of fire and other hazards. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed at no cost at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
Subscribe to NFPA RSS News feeds
Contact: Lorraine Carli, Public Affairs Office: +1 617 984-7275
Firewise launches national wildfire safety challenge for communitieshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nfpanewsreleases/~3/oXVdp3DFgy0/newsReleaseDetails.asphttp://feeds.feedburner.com/nfpanewsreleases?format=xmlNFPA news releasesThe latest news releases from NFPA, National Fire Protection Associationhttp://www.mywebsite.com/rss-image.gif

NFPA Board of Directors appoints new members to Standards Council
January 24, 2013—The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Board of Directors appointed two new members to serve on the Association’s Standards Council for a three-year term effective January 2013: James E. Golinveaux of North Kingstown, R.I., and Bonnie E. Manley of Norfolk, Mass.
With 30 years of experience in the fire protection industry including both contracting and manufacturing, Golinveaux is currently a senior fellow of Water Suppression Products for Tyco Fire Protection Products. His current role applies his experience globally in the fire protection industry to develop advancements in water-based fire protection devices and systems. He currently holds 12 U.S. Patent families in Automatic Sprinkler Technologies. He is a past member of the Board of Trustees for the Fire Protection Research Foundation, as well as multiple other boards and councils including the Factory Mutual Advisory, AFSA, NFSA, International Fire Sprinkler Association and the Fire Sprinkler Association of Brazil. Golinveaux is also a subject matter expert for past two editions of the NFPA Fire Protection Handbook and the NFPA 13 Handbook on Storage and Residential Sprinklers. He has served on NFPA 13 Technical Committee for the past 18 years and has chaired the storage task group for the last 13 years. Additionally, he is a technical committee member of NFPA 88A, 101 and 5000.
Manley, P.E., M.ASCE, is a regional director for the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI). Since joining AISI in 2006, her primary focus has been the structural and material provisions of the model codes and standards. Over the years, this has involved collaboration with numerous external organizations and committees including ASCE, BSSC, FEMA, ICC, NCSEA, and NFPA. She is a current member of the NFPA Correlating Committee on Building Code and the Technical Committee on Structures, Construction and Materials. Manley also serves on the ASCE Codes and Standards Committee, which oversees their codes and standards development activities, maintains their ANSI accreditation, and enforces their rules for standards committees. Prior to joining AISI, she worked as a senior structural engineer for NFPA. Manley earned a Master of Science in Civil Engineering and a Master of Science in Construction Engineering and Management at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She has a Bachelor of Science in Structural Engineering from the University of California, San Diego, and is a registered professional engineer in Massachusetts.
The NFPA Standards Council, a 13 member body appointed by the board of directors of NFPA, is charged with overseeing the NFPA codes and standards making process. Generally, the duties of the Council include supervising activities related to NFPA codes and standards development, acting as administer of rules and regulations, and serving as an appeals body.
About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)NFPA is a worldwide leader in fire, electrical, building, and life safety. The mission of the international nonprofit organization founded in 1896 is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. NFPA develops more than 300 codes and standards to minimize the possibility and effects of fire and other hazards. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed at no cost at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
Subscribe to NFPA RSS News feeds
Contact: Lorraine Carli, Public Affairs Office: +1 617 984-7275
NFPA Board of Directors appoints new members to Standards Councilhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nfpanewsreleases/~3/oXVdp3DFgy0/newsReleaseDetails.asphttp://feeds.feedburner.com/nfpanewsreleases?format=xmlNFPA news releasesThe latest news releases from NFPA, National Fire Protection Associationhttp://www.mywebsite.com/rss-image.gif

NFPA’s 5th Backyards and Beyond Wildland Fire Education Conference slated for Salt Lake City
in NovemberTopics to focus on wildfire safety issues and best practices to reduce risks
January 25, 2012— Registration for the National Fire Protection Association’s (NFPA) 5th Backyards & Beyond® Wildland Fire Education Conference is now available online. The conference will be held November 14 – 16 in Salt Lake City, Utah where experts and stakeholders will gather to discuss wildfire safety issues and best practices for reducing risks. With more than 50 breakout sessions in five educational tracks, the Backyards and Beyond conference offers leading wildland fire experts, community planners, civic leaders, homeowners and residents, insurance professionals, landscape architects, and physical and social researchers and scientists an opportunity to build relationships and explore answers to important wildland fire safety questions that can be taken back to communities and the workplace.
A pre-conference workshop, Assessing Wildfire Hazards in the Home Ignition Zone, will be held on November 12-13 with instructors Jack Cohen, a research physical scientist with the USDA Forest Service; and Pat Durland, president and wildland fire consultant of Stone Creek Fire, a company that specializes in wildfire mitigation services. The two-day workshop provides important information about fire behavior and structure ignition from wildfires, and helps identify measures residents can take to reduce wildfire risks to their homes.
More information about the conference, workshop, accommodations and transportation can be found on the Firewise website. Registration for both the two-day workshop and the conference is available online, through the mail or by phone. Visit NFPA’s registration page for details. A discounted conference rate is available for those who register before October 11, 2013.
NFPA continues to accept proposals for educational presentations for the conference. The deadline for online submissions has been extended to February 15, 2013. More information can be found on the submission page on the Firewise website.
NFPA’s Wildland Fire Operations Division provides information and resources through the Firewise® Communities Program and Fire Adapted Communities® initiative (both co-sponsored by the USDA Forest Service), education, training, conferences, workshops and courses to community residents to help them reduce their risk of wildfire damage to homes and property.
About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)NFPA is a worldwide leader in fire, electrical, building, and life safety. The mission of the international nonprofit organization founded in 1896 is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. NFPA develops more than 300 codes and standards to minimize the possibility and effects of fire and other hazards. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed at no cost at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
Subscribe to NFPA RSS News feeds
Contact: Lorraine Carli, Public Affairs Office: +1 617 984-7275
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EPA announced that total toxic air releases in 2011 declined 8 percent from 2010, mostly because of decreases in hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions.
Total toxic air releases in 2011 declined 8 percent from 2010, mostly because of decreases in hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions, even while total releases of toxic chemicals increased for the second year in a row, according to the EPA annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) report.
The annual Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) provides the public with vital information about chemicals in our communities. The TRI program collects information on certain toxic chemical releases to the air, water and land, as well as information on waste management and pollution prevention activities by facilities across the country. TRI data are submitted annually to EPA, states and tribes by facilities in industry sectors such as manufacturing, metal mining, electric utilities and commercial hazardous waste facilities.
“The Toxics Release Inventory provides widespread access to valuable environmental information. It plays a critical role in EPA’s efforts to hold polluters accountable and identify and acknowledge those who take steps to prevent pollution,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Since 1998, we have recorded a steady decline in the amount of TRI chemicals released into the air, and since 2009 alone, we have seen more than a 100 million pound decrease in TRI air pollutants entering our communities. This remarkable success is due in part to the TRI program and concerted efforts by industry, regulators and public interest groups to clean up the air we all depend upon.”
Among the HAPs showing decline were hydrochloric acid and mercury. Likely reasons for the decreases seen over the past several years include installation of control technologies at coal-fired power plants and a shift to other fuel sources. Releases into surface water decreased 3 percent and releases to land increased 19 percent since 2010, with the latter again due primarily to the metal mining sector.
Many of the releases from TRI facilities are regulated under various EPA programs and requirements designed to limit harm to people’s health and the environment.
EPA’s 2011 TRI Shows Air Pollutants Continue to Declinehttp://ehstoday.com/environment/epa-s-2011-tri-shows-air-pollutants-continue-declinehttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

In the new study, “Retaliatory Disclosure: When Identifying the Complainant Is an Adverse Action,” researchers from the Indiana University (IU) Kelley School of Business set out to determine when public disclosure of a whistleblower’s identity, such as through an email, may be classified as retaliation.
“When someone makes a complaint of discrimination that’s covered by federal anti-discrimination laws, you’re automatically cloaked in protection from retaliatory actions that could come in response,” said Jamie Prenkert, associate professor of business law at the IU Kelley School of Business Bloomington and the study’s lead author. “But what can be retaliatory is a broad-ranging continuum of actions that the courts don’t specifically define.”
Prenkert, who also is a Weimer Faculty Fellow, noted that simply the possibility of being publicly identified as a complainant is enough to discourage someone from becoming a whistleblower. But Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, existing case law and EEOC regulatory documents provide little guidance on the use of email and similar, immediate forms of communication.
The assurance of anonymity, however, is a key reason employees may be willing to speak up in the first place.
“There’s a lot of research about whistle-blowers – why people blow the whistle, what influences them – and anonymity is one reason to decide to blow the whistle,” said Julie Manning Magid, associate professor of business law at the IU Kelley School of Business Indianapolis.
Defining Employer Retaliation in Whistleblower Caseshttp://ehstoday.com/safety/defining-employer-retaliation-whistleblower-caseshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

As we embark on a new year and look forward to our future contributions in the safety world, we might wonder what the EHS professional’s workday will look like decades from now.
If our current technological advances continue, it is not a distant stretch of the imagination to conceive a workplace that is far different from what we have today. The question is how different and what role will the EHS professional play?
How Different Will the Workplace Be?
Advances in nanotechnology will rule. It is likely that picotechnology will be in its advanced developmental stages. We will no longer be administered medications orally; a swipe across the back of your ear with a pen-like device will deliver a painless and precise dose directly into our blood stream.
Raw material and processing waste streams will be highly hazardous, posing a danger through ingestion, respiratory and dermal contact and food chain contamination at the cellular level.
Products will have multi-layer properties, each contributing to an amazing array of capabilities. Metal as we know it will give way to stronger, lighter and less temperature-sensitive materials. Physical doors will be replaced with electro-magnetic barriers that allow access via the electronics gently implanted in your arm. These same epidermal-implanted pico circuits will serve as computers, cell phones, credit cards, banking portals, shopping malls, medical surveillance and treatment devices, professional credential recording logs and hazard warning devices.
Yes, you read that correctly: professional credential recording logs where your work experience will be maintained in a similar way a modern vehicle logs in the number of hours on its engine. An employer will be able to scan you virtually and determine if you are professionally qualified to perform the job. These implants will even have the capability to accurately predict how long you will live based on your body’s chemistry, a calculation that will adjust as your lifestyle choices dictate.
The work force will mostly shift from manual labor to monitoring and service. Time will compress with more output in less time and for less cost. Efficiency will increase. Advanced robotics will represent a much higher percentage of the work producing resources. There will be construction robots, maintenance robots, operations robots, quality control robots, EHS robots, robots for robots and apps for the apps in the robots.
We will live in a truly global economy. Regardless of where you work in the world, there will generally be common consensus standards governing the protection of people, property and the environment.
It will be a high-hazard work environment as the result of new technologies and the challenges associated with a global economy.
What Role Will the EHS Professional Play?
The EHS professional’s workday will be different. Rather than chasing the fox, the EHS pro will be waiting for it at the foxhole.
This means that the EHS professional will be:
Ahead of the technology curve, working on the research and development side to reduce risk to near zero at the source;
Innovation-focused and highly process driven;
Highly knowledgeable in the fields of leadership, global medicine, economics, ergonomics, forensics, industrial engineering and performance excellence, law, sociology, biology, materials science, robotics, computer science, finance, communications, physics, chemistry, statistics, structural and civil engineering, systems safety, business development, cultural ethics and, of course, psychology;
Synchronized with world events and how they may impact EHS implementation performance; and
Super flexible and highly receptive and adaptive to change.
So now that you have a glimpse of the possible future journey. “What is the future of the EHS professional’s role?” you ask. Perhaps the answer to that question can be found in what we professionals do for EHS today, sometime later in the fated moment in time.
The Future of the EHS Professional’s Rolehttp://ehstoday.com/blog/future-ehs-professional-s-rolehttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Azerbaijan’s inaugural International Safety Leadership Conference, held in the capital city of Baku in December 2012, represents a step toward improved occupational safety for a country experiencing rapid growth in the oil and gas industry.
During the conference, Azerbaijan’s Member of Parliament Rauf Aliyev and Karim Agayev, state supervision of construction, ministry of emergency situations team leader, invoked a popular quote from Azerbaijan’s former president, Heydar Aliyev: “It is much easier to prevent an incident than to deal with its outcome after it happens.”
Significant projects in the Baku, Azerbaijan, region include the development of the Turkmenistan Nabucco gas pipeline being built to transport gas to Central and Western Europe; the Sangachal Terminal, one of the largest oil and gas facilities in the world; and the Baku-Tibilisi-Ceyhan pipeline. Such projects point to a growing need for sophisticated occupational safety and health systems and leadership.
The conference was sponsored and organized by the Baku-based Rovshan Oguz Group. The group’s founder and president, Hafiz Mustafayev, opened the event by outlining the conference’s purpose: “To organize in an atmosphere of trust and confidence, provide a safe work environment, provide an open and honest relationship, to ensure the full involvement of employees of various trades, and to provide knowledge, skills and opportunities to improve the quality of work and beneficial relations with suppliers are roles of leadership in our company.”
ASSE Takes Its Safety Message to Azerbaijanhttp://ehstoday.com/safety/asse-takes-its-safety-message-azerbaijanhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

The growth of manufacturing along with new safety requirements in emerging countries spells a greater demand for machine safety solutions – and implementing machine safety systems can give manufacturers a competitive advantage and a positive public image, according to new research from Frost & Sullivan.
“Safety systems monitor health of plant equipment to reduce its exposure to damage and lengthen its lifecycle,” said Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Anna Mazurek. “In addition, they decrease the probability of work-related injuries, allowing machine operators to work more efficiently. This drives end-users to employ machine safety solutions.”
Frost & Sullivan’s Strategic Analysis of Global Machine Safety Market research finds that the market earned revenues of more than $1.27 billion in 2011 and estimates this to reach $1.75 billion in 2016.
Manufacturers, especially in developed countries where law enforcement is high, are aware that it is more cost-efficient to use machine safety devices than bear the penalty for non-compliance. Improvements in safety solutions also offer business opportunities for machine safety vendors among conservative end-users.
However, the recent economic downturn has forced manufacturers to concentrate on reducing operating and maintenance costs, leading to declining investments in areas not crucial for plant operation. Unfortunately, this can cover safety solutions as well, which many end-users still view as non-critical. In developing countries, poor execution of policies curbs investment, which leads to lower sales and slower development of technology. End-users need to realize that a safe working environment is not an optional production process improvement, but a necessity and an obligation to employees.
“To drive adoption, suppliers need to educate potential customers on the full range of safety benefits offered through the advancements in plant networking devices and control systems,” concluded Mazurek. “To optimize their investment, end-users must know how to assess the risk of injury and opt for solutions that can address those specific needs.”
Global Trends in Machine Safety Solutionshttp://ehstoday.com/safety/global-trends-machine-safety-solutionshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Welder Reuben Shemwell filed a complaint against his former employer, Armstrong Coal, claiming he was fired for refusing to work in unsafe conditions. His former employer is suing him for making what it believes are frivolous claims.
Whistleblower laws exist to protect workers who have been fired or otherwise punished by their employers for complaining about working conditions. Reuben Shemwell, a welder in Kentucky, says he was fired in September 2011 by a division of Armstrong Coal for complaining about workplace safety conditions related to confined space entry and refusing to work on machinery that had not been de-energized. His former employer countered, claiming Shemwell was warned three times for excessive cell phone use and his employment subsequently was terminated.
Following his dismissal, Shemwell filed a discrimination complaint with the Mine Safety and Health Administration, which tried to inspect the location where Shemwell had been employed. Before MSHA could conduct the inspection, Armstrong shut the operation down and furloughed 10 workers. An administrative law judge with the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission ordered that Shemwell be reinstated to his position with the company, and Armstrong appealed the decision. On July 12, 2012, the commission issued a decision affirming the judge’s decision ordering that Shemwell be reinstated until the commission was able to determine the merits of his complaint.
The commission held that the miner’s complaint, which alleged that he was discharged because he complained about the lack of protection from welding fumes, was “not frivolously brought” within the meaning of the Mine Act’s temporary reinstatement provision. The commission also held that Shemwell’s right to temporary reinstatement was not affected by Armstrong’s layoff of miners at his former jobsite.
Unfortunately for Shemwell, MSHA decided not to pursue his discrimination complain against Armstrong Coal, and the company fired back with a lawsuit.
In the filing, Armstrong asserted that “Shemwell did not file his discrimination claim for the purpose of exercising any valid legal right… Despite Shemwell’s knowledge that his own misconduct was the sole reason for the termination of his employment, Shemwell desired to cause damage to plaintiffs due to their termination of his employment.”
Tony Oppegard, Shemwell’s attorney, said he thinks the reason Armstrong Coal filed the lawsuit “was to intimidate him and to intimidate other miners.”
Perhaps the company has gone too far this time; MSHA once again has entered the battle, filing a complaint against Armstrong Coal, stating that the lawsuit was an attempt to discourage miners from filing discrimination complaints. “Miners who wish to avoid similar treatment will be hesitant from asserting their rights,” MSHA said in the complaint.
According to Section 105(c) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977, a miner cannot be discharged, discriminated against or interfered with in the exercise of statutory rights because he or she has filed a complaint alleging a health or safety violation. In addition, miners have rights including, for example, to testify or assist in legal proceedings brought under the Mine Act, or to refuse to work under unsafe or unhealthy conditions.
“All miners have the right to a safe workplace, and the right to identify hazardous conditions and refuse unsafe work without fear of discrimination or retaliation,” said Joseph A. Main, assistant secretary of labor for mine safety and health, in August 2012, when the agency announced an increase in the number of miners temporarily reinstated to their jobs after filing complaints of discrimination in the form of a suspension, layoff discharge or other adverse action. “Since I arrived at MSHA nearly three years ago, one of my top goals has been to educate miners about those rights and protections, and to rigorously enforce them.”
Oppegard said that if Armstrong prevails, then the whistleblower protections in the Mine Safety and Health Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act would be “essentially worthless.”
Mining Company Sues Worker Who Reported Safety Concernshttp://ehstoday.com/msha/mining-company-sues-worker-who-reported-safety-concernshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Encouraging employees to merge their work lives with their social lives by using an internal social networking site at work can reduce turnover and improve morale, engagement and organizational commitment among workers, according to a new study from Baylor University.
“For millennials, mixing their work life and their social life via an online social networking created positive emotions for the employees who use the system,” said Hope Koch, Ph.D., Baylor University associate professor of information systems in the Hankamer School of Business and study co-author. “These emotions led to more social networking and ultimately helped the employees build personal resources like social capital and organizational learning.”
Koch suggested that such social networking sites may be particularly effective when the new workers are relocating to unfamiliar areas and need to build a network, assume highly technical jobs or become integrated into a large organization where it may be difficult to know where to go for help.
Making Introductions, Social-Media Style
The study centered on a financial institution’s efforts to reduce IT employee turnover by starting a social and work-related online networking site. Under the supervision of executives, the new hires developed and managed the site’s content. Since most new hires had moved hundreds of miles to start their new jobs with the institution, they initially used the social pages as an introduction to the community. After a year or so with the organization, the more senior new hires began using the system to acclimate and mentor incoming new hires.
The internal social networking site helped the new hires build social capital in several ways, according to Koch.
“It gave them access to people who could provide useful information and new perspectives and allowed them to meet more senior new hires and executives. These relationships set the new hires at ease during work meetings, helped them understand where to go for help and increased their commitment to the financial institution’s mission,” she said.
Ironically, middle managers, even though they wanted freedom from mentoring new hires, developed a negative attitude toward online social networking when they realized that the new hires had managed to accrue social capital and social experiences with senior executives that they had not had access to in their many years of work.
The social networking system also helped the new hires maintain relationships with one another, thus facilitating a network of acquaintances that can do small favors and help build emotionally close friendships. Finally, by allowing the new hires to access information on the site, meet other new hires and develop and maintain relationships with their peer group, the financial institution was able to shift some of the burden of acclimating the new hires away from middle managers and human resources.
Despite these positive results, Koch urges organizations to proceed with caution when implementing social networking sites. In particular, she stressed that middle managers experienced frustration, isolation and envy in reaction to the sites, and the senior executives were somewhat circumspect.
“Before beginning an internal social networking initiative, organizations should consider analyzing how the system may impact both its users and non-users, paying particular attention to potential isolation of non-users and the negative stigma associated with [social networking sites] in the workplace,” she said.
The case study was published in the European Journal of Information Systems.
Internal Social Media Sites May Improve Worker Morale, Retentionhttp://ehstoday.com/health/internal-social-media-sites-may-improve-worker-morale-retentionhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

A federal judge today accepted the plea agreement reached between the U.S. Department of Justice and BP Exploration and Production Inc. in which BP agreed to plead guilty to felony manslaughter, environmental crimes and obstruction of Congress for the role the company played in the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
U.S. District Court Judge Sarah Vance has approved a $4 billion dollar settlement between BP Exploration and Production Inc. and the U.S. Department of Justice related to the Deepwater Horizon tragedy and its cleanup, in which the company will plead guilty to 11 felony counts of Misconduct or Neglect of Ships Officers relating to the loss of 11 lives; one misdemeanor count under the Clean Water Act; one misdemeanor count under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act; and one felony count of obstruction of Congress. The federal government and BP reached the settlement in November 2012, but have been waiting for Judge Vance to approve it.
Neither DOJ nor BP presented arguments to the court before Vance made her ruling. She listened to testimony from the family members of the 11 workers who died in the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on April 20, 2010. Calling the settlement “just,” Vance said the statements made by the families of the victims were “gut-wrenching.”
Although BP executives have issued statements stating they “deeply regret the tragic loss of life” and have apologized for the company’s role in the tragedy, Vance told family members they deserved personal apologies from BP executives.
“I think BP should have done that out of basic humanity,” said Vance.
DOJ also has issued a 23-count indictment charging BP’s two highest-ranking supervisors onboard the Deepwater Horizon – Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine – with manslaughter and violation of the Clean Water Act. The indictment charges the two BP well site leaders with negligence, and gross-negligence, on the evening of April 20, 2010.
“In the face of glaring red flags indicating that the well was not secure, both men allegedly failed to take appropriate action to prevent the blowout,” said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer.
A separate indictment charged a former senior BP executive, David Rainey, with obstructing a congressional investigation and making false statements to law enforcement officials. The indictment alleges that Rainey, on behalf of BP, intentionally underestimated the amount of oil flowing from the Macondo well. Rainey allegedly cherry-picked pages from documents, withheld other documents altogether and lied to Congress and others in order to make the spill appear less catastrophic than it was.
Kurt Mix, a former BP engineer, was arrested in April 2012 on charges of intentionally destroying evidence requested by federal criminal authorities investigating the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Mix was charged with two counts of obstruction of justice in a criminal complaint filed in the Eastern District of Louisiana.
“The explosion of the rig was a disaster that resulted from BP’s culture of privileging profit over prudence,” said Breuer. “We hope that BP’s acknowledgment of its misconduct – through its agreement to plead guilty to 11 counts of felony manslaughter – brings some measure of justice to the family members of the people who died onboard the rig.”
Federal Judge Accepts BP Plea Agreement in Deepwater Horizon Casehttp://ehstoday.com/safety/federal-judge-accepts-bp-plea-agreement-deepwater-horizon-casehttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

A satisfied customer is a loyal customer, and a company supported by loyal, satisfied customers reaps a multitude of benefits. A recent study of employees at an electric utility company found that workplace safety may influence customer satisfaction, “suggesting that there are likely spillover effects between the safety environment and the service environment.”
The study, which was conducted by the National Safety Council (NSC) and published in the Journal of Safety Research, studied 821 employees at a Midwestern electric utility company’s power delivery and customer care groups to consider how a company’s safety climate and workplace injury statistics might impact customer satisfaction.
The study examined work groups at the utility company that were responsible for customer-related functions including installation and service of distribution lines, meter reading, billing, safety, emergency services and more. Work units that had more employee injuries, researchers revealed, also had customers who were less satisfied with the service they received.
Researchers considered that safe working environments may create other benefits related to quality of the work, which may subsequently impact customer satisfaction.
“In an organization with a positive safety climate, where safety does not take a back seat to productivity, employees are likely to believe they have permission to do things right. Doing things right is a permeating value in a work unit that is likely to reach into several domains of work behavior, some of which influence the quality of work,” the paper stated.
The results show that customer satisfaction and a company’s safety climate and injury rates were “significantly correlated.” The researchers also suggested that the study results help make the business case for safety:
“The results of this research bolster the business case for safety. They demonstrate that workplace safety is not simply an issue of doing the right thing or avoiding costs associated with lost-time injuries and related expenses. There are positive business outcomes to be gained in the form of improved customer satisfaction. The explanatory logic, although not proven conclusively here, is that a better safety environment produces spillover effects into the service environment,” the study stated.
“These findings offer good news for safety professionals because they add to the arsenal of arguments for investing in initiatives to improve safety environments and reduce injuries,” the paper concluded.
Can Worker Safety Impact Customer Satisfaction?http://ehstoday.com/safety/can-worker-safety-impact-customer-satisfactionhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

NFPA and ESPN’s Hannah Storm release PSAs on grilling safetySports anchor calls on Super Bowl grillers to play it safe
January 30, 2013 – The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) is collaborating with ESPN SportsCenter Anchor Hannah Storm on a series of home fire safety PSAs. As the Super Bowl approaches, these messages encourage the public to take care when using their grills. For PSAs and safety information visit, www.nfpa.org/hannah.
In December 2012, Storm was badly burned while preparing to cook dinner for her children. After wind blew out the flame, propane gas pooled on her grill and became an explosive fireball when Storm attempted to re-ignite it. Only the instinct to close her eyes upon seeing the flame saved her corneas, but her face, neck, chest and hands suffered first- and second-degree burns.
According to NFPA, flammable or combustible gas or liquid was the item first ignited in half of home outdoor grill fires. The course of action to remember in grilling is: if the flame goes out, immediately turn off the gas and the grill, and wait at least 15 minutes before trying to re-light it.
Storm feels that it is “important to tell and share this story because it was a very simple mistake that I made, but it was a very common mistake. People all over the world grill and they grill all the time, and most of the people that I know really don’t understand the proper procedures…”
“Fires and burn injuries are not only traumatic for the person, but for the family and community as well,” says Lorraine Carli, vice president of Communications at NFPA. “Hannah is very courageous to share the personal details of her fire experience and burn injury to remind the public to take steps to prevent fires and avoid injuries.”
February 3rd marks not only the Super Bowl, but also the first day of Burn Awareness Week 2013. The week is an opportunity for burn, fire and life safety educators to spread a message of fire safety throughout local communities. The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors works with those injured by burns, providing a supportive community on the road to recovery.
“Imagine for a moment every single person who is at the stadium at the Super Bowl – approximately 85,500 plus attendees. That’s the number of just children under the age of 14 impacted by a burn injury each year,” said Amy Acton, executive director of the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors. “We commend Hannah for sharing her story to bring awareness on how you can prevent burn injuries and to connect those who have had an injury to available resources.”
Storm returned to television on January 1, 2013. Her PSAs aim to raise awareness of the potential dangers of grilling, and to ensure safe cooking for sports fans and families alike.
About the Phoenix Society for Burn SurvivorsThe Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors is the leading national nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering anyone affected by a burn injury through peer support, education, and advocacy. Visit the Phoenix Society’s website at www.phoenix-society.org.
About the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)NFPA is a worldwide leader in fire, electrical, building, and life safety. The mission of the international nonprofit organization founded in 1896 is to reduce the worldwide burden of fire and other hazards on the quality of life by providing and advocating consensus codes and standards, research, training, and education. NFPA develops more than 300 codes and standards to minimize the possibility and effects of fire and other hazards. All NFPA codes and standards can be viewed at no cost at www.nfpa.org/freeaccess.
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Contact: Lorraine Carli, Public Affairs Office: +1 617 984-7275
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In the last decade, many companies have developed corporate sustainability programs that focus on addressing challenges like energy and water use, greenhouse gas emissions, labor conditions and product sourcing. By their very nature, these issues also fall under the purview of EHS, yet the two programs often remain separate from each other and from core business operations – a separation that leads to missed opportunities.
Integrating EHS and sustainability management programs into one unified program and into the core business operations will lay the foundation for compliance, consistency and continuous improvement by creating a single source of operating instructions and procedures for all company processes across facilities, regions and the entire organization.
The first step in integrating a sustainability program into the existing EHS program and into the core business operations involves incorporating sustainability metrics into corporate reporting. According to a study from the Governance and Accountability Institute, the majority of S&P 500 and Fortune 500 companies already report this information in publicly available corporate sustainability reports.
The second step focuses on combining EHS and sustainability resources to drive cost savings and revenue opportunities. Finally, full integration into the core business strategy requires securing commitment from the board and making sustainability part of a company’s core business strategy.
The Benefits
Ultimately, the close collaboration of a company’s EHS and sustainability programs can benefit the company by helping it increase revenue, save money and manage risk more effectively. Recognizing this, in an Ernst & Young LLP study, we found that 65 percent of CFOs in leading corporations are involved in sustainability initiatives. Collaborating with other business units inside a company also can accelerate these efforts and bring additional resources to bear.
Let’s take a closer look at these three benefits:
Increasing Revenue – An integrated sustainability/EHS program positions a business to increase its revenue by enhancing its reputation with customers, the public and other key stakeholders. It also can open up new revenue streams. Consider the example of a solid waste transportation and disposal organization that identified nearly $5 million in new money derived from an improved process for drying biosolids that could be sold to farmers.
Saving Money – Leading EHS and sustainability programs help companies reduce their use of raw materials, decrease waste per unit of production and reduce energy use – all of which can bring significant savings. In addition, effective programs reduce the cost of compliance, including accident and attendant insurance costs. Finally, a well-designed sustainability and EHS management system that evinces a corporate culture committed to compliance may mitigate penalties in the event of an incident.
Managing Risk – Well-integrated EHS and sustainability programs do a better job of identifying and resolving EHS and sustainability issues, which helps improve regulatory compliance at a time of increasing scrutiny. It also helps prevent disruptions in the supply chain and minimizes reputational and regulatory fallout when problems do occur. Additionally, such programs help protect workers and can be instrumental in raising morale and improving employee relations. As costs of non-compliance have grown in a time of economic and regulatory uncertainty, leading organizations are realizing that the best EHS and sustainability management systems are those that are integrated into the business as a whole.
What can you do?
It is well worth the time it takes for an EHS manager to get involved in a company’s sustainability efforts. If no initiatives exist, take this opportunity to start your own initiative and lead a company into the future. The results will bring value to the bottom line and help make money, save money and manage risk.
James Haried is a senior manager in Ernst & Young’s Climate Change and Sustainability Services practice. He has more than 25 years of experience in EHS, specializing in manufacturing, energy, chemicals, pharmaceutical and utilities including nuclear. Haried has assisted numerous clients in achieving cost savings and EHS process improvements while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. He has been involved at more than 140 sites in the successful implementation of management systems for environment, safety, quality and Responsible Care, and he has assisted numerous corporate headquarters in implementing or updating their EHS and quality management systems as well as several Fortune 100 clients in proactively managing and assuring EHS regulatory compliance. Learn more at www.ey.com/climatechange.
The Value of Integrating EHS and Sustainability Programshttp://ehstoday.com/environment/value-integrating-ehs-and-sustainability-programshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Although work-related fatal injuries and the incidence of workplace injury and illness seem to be trending downward, there is still much room to grow and create an environment of total worker safety. One way to create a safer work force is by providing proper safety training.
Download this case study now.
For a safer workplace, use leading indicators to avoid lagginghttp://ehstoday.com/archive/safer-workplace-use-leading-indicators-avoid-lagginghttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Tips, tricks and great ideas for crew leaders on how to hold construction tailgate safety meetings.
How to have a construction tailgate safety meetinghttp://ehstoday.com/construction/how-have-construction-tailgate-safety-meetinghttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

As we face a particularly aggressive flu season this year, you’d be smart to do everything possible to stay healthy and keep your immune system in fighting form. In addition to getting plenty of sleep, washing your hands regularly and getting a flu shot, you can also increase your odds of going flu-free this year through proper nutrition. Here are some of the best foods to eat if you want to avoid a nasty case of the flu.
“A strong immune system doesn’t guarantee your body can fight off every flu bug, but it is a powerful defense,” said Heather Mangieri, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. “Good nutrition is essential to a strong immune response.”
Mangieri recommends eating foods that are full of the nutrients recognized for their roles in building immunity. These foods include:
Beans and peas, seafood, lean meat, poultry, eggs, soy products and unsalted nuts and seeds provide protein, which is part of the body’s defense mechanism.
Sweet potatoes, carrots, kale, spinach, red bell peppers, apricots, milk and eggs offer Vitamin A to help regulate the immune system and protect from infections by keeping the skin and tissues in your mouth, stomach, intestines and respiratory system healthy.
Oranges, grapefruit and tangerines, red bell pepper, papaya, strawberries and tomato juice are packed full of Vitamin C, which protects against infection by stimulating the formation of antibodies and boosting immunity.
Sunflower seeds, almonds, sunflower or safflower oil, hazelnuts, peanut butter and spinach provide Vitamin E, which works as an antioxidant, neutralizes free radicals and may improve immune function.
Lean beef, wheat germ, crab, wheat bran, sunflower seeds, black-eyed peas, almonds, milk and tofu are good sources of zinc, which helps the immune system work properly and may help wounds heal.
Thankfully, I’ve been flu-free this year, and I hope to keep it that way. So pass the sweet potatoes and the spinach – I have an immune system to support!
Fight Off the Flu By Eating These Foodshttp://ehstoday.com/blog/fight-flu-eating-these-foodshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Powered industrial trucks can either be ridden by the operator or controlled by a walking operator. There are many types of powered industrial trucks. Each type presents different operating hazards. For example, a sit-down, counterbalanced high-lift rider truck is more likely than a motorized hand truck to be involved in a falling load accident because the sit-down rider truck can lift a load much higher than a hand truck.
Workplace type and conditions are also factors in hazards commonly associated with powered industrial trucks. For example, retail establishments often face greater challenges than other worksites in maintaining pedestrian safety. Beyond that, many workers can also be injured when:
Lift trucks are inadvertently driven off loading docks;
Lifts fall between docks and an unsecured trailer;
They are struck by a lift truck; or
They fall while on elevated pallets and tines.
Determining the best way to protect workers from injury largely depends on the type of truck operated and the worksite where it is being used. Employers must ensure that each powered industrial truck operator is competent to operate a powered industrial truck safely, as demonstrated by the successful completion of the training and evaluation specified in 29 CFR 1910.178(l)(1).
This infographic, Forklift Safety for a Better Tomorrow, highlights safety tips and offers advice about the importance of operator and employee training.
Infographic: Forklift Safety for a Better Tomorrowhttp://ehstoday.com/safety/infographic-forklift-safety-better-tomorrowhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Please download our 2013 America’s Safest Companies application here and type your answers directly into the writable PDF. You may submit your application as an emailed PDF or print and mail it. The receive-by deadline for all applications is July 15, 2013. If you have any questions or have difficulty accessing the form, please email sandy.smith@penton.com or laura.walter@penton.com and put “America’s Safest Companies” in the subject line.
America’s Safest Companies Applicationhttp://ehstoday.com/americas-safest-companies-applicationhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Please download our 2013 America’s Safest Companies application here and type your answers directly into the writable PDF. You may submit your application as an emailed PDF or print and mail it. The receive-by deadline for all applications is July 15, 2013. If you have any questions or have difficulty accessing the form, please email sandy.smith@penton.com or laura.walter@penton.com and put “America’s Safest Companies” in the subject line.
America’s Safest Companies Applicationhttp://ehstoday.com/americas-safest-companies-applicationhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Please download our 2013 America’s Safest Companies application here and type your answers directly into the writable PDF. You may submit your application as an emailed PDF or print and mail it. The receive-by deadline for all applications is July 15, 2013. If you have any questions or have difficulty accessing the form, please email sandy.smith@penton.com or laura.walter@penton.com and put “America’s Safest Companies” in the subject line.
America’s Safest Companies Applicationhttp://ehstoday.com/americas-safest-companies-applicationhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Please download our 2013 America’s Safest Companies application here and type your answers directly into the writable PDF. You may submit your application as an emailed PDF or print and mail it. The receive-by deadline for all applications is July 15, 2013. If you have any questions or have difficulty accessing the form, please email sandy.smith@penton.com or laura.walter@penton.com and put “America’s Safest Companies” in the subject line.
America’s Safest Companies Applicationhttp://ehstoday.com/americas-safest-companies-applicationhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Please download our 2013 America’s Safest Companies application here and type your answers directly into the writable PDF. You may submit your application as an emailed PDF or print and mail it. The receive-by deadline for all applications is July 15, 2013. If you have any questions or have difficulty accessing the form, please email sandy.smith@penton.com or laura.walter@penton.com and put “America’s Safest Companies” in the subject line.
America’s Safest Companies Applicationhttp://ehstoday.com/americas-safest-companies-applicationhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

Please download our 2013 America’s Safest Companies application here and type your answers directly into the writable PDF. You may submit your application as an emailed PDF or print and mail it. The receive-by deadline for all applications is July 15, 2013. If you have any questions or have difficulty accessing the form, please email sandy.smith@penton.com or laura.walter@penton.com and put “America’s Safest Companies” in the subject line.
America’s Safest Companies Applicationhttp://ehstoday.com/americas-safest-companies-applicationhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

An investigation by the state of Washington’s Department of Labor & Industry has resulted in a four-and- a-half month jail sentence for a Kettle Falls woman who admitted to stealing more than $30,000 in workers’ compensation benefits.
Heather L. Payne, 22, was sentenced in Thurston County Superior Court on Jan. 31. Paine used forged signatures to receive $30,945 in workers’ compensation benefits. As part of the sentencing she agreed to reimburse L&I for the stolen funds.
Until his death in 2001, Payne’s father received an L&I pension due to a workplace injury that left him permanently disabled. Because she was a minor at the time, Payne was awarded survivor benefits.
When she turned 18, Payne was entitled to continued support as long as she remained a full-time student. L&I requires the recipients of these benefits to regularly submit paperwork verifying they are still in school.
In October 2010, L&I staff noticed inconsistencies in the forms Payne submitted. An investigation revealed that she had dropped out of school in early 2010. In an interview, she admitted to submitting a forged signature in order to continue receiving the pension benefits.
Kettle Falls Woman Caught Stealing Workers’ Compensation Benefits in Washingtonhttp://ehstoday.com/health/kettle-falls-woman-caught-stealing-workers-compensation-benefits-washingtonhttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

During the darker days of winter, more people report feeling depressed and tired. For many, it’s a normal response to less sunlight, but for others, it can be a clinical form of depression called seasonal affective disorder (SAD). To help understand the difference between the winter blues and SAD, the American Psychological Association asked psychologist and SAD expert Kelly Rohan, PhD, to explain the signs of the disorder and potential treatments.
APA: What is seasonal affective disorder and how is it different from winter blues or other types of depression??
Dr. Kelly Rohan: Seasonal affective disorder is a regular seasonal pattern of major depressive episodes during the fall and winter months with periods of full improvement in the spring and summer. The symptoms of SAD are exactly the same as non-seasonal depression symptoms, which can include a loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyed activities, excessive fatigue, difficulty concentrating, a significant change in sleep length and thoughts about death or suicide. The only difference with SAD is the seasonal pattern it follows. The most commonly reported SAD symptoms include significant fatigue, pervasively sad mood, loss of interest in activities, sleeping more than usual, craving and eating more starches and sweets, gaining at least 5 percent of body weight and difficulty concentrating.
Most people experience SAD symptoms to a certain extent, especially at higher latitudes. These individuals who do not meet diagnostic criteria for depression during the fall/winter months, but who experience mild to moderate symptoms during fall or winter, are considered to have a milder form of this disorder also known as subsyndromal SAD or the “winter blues.”
APA: What are the types of treatments for this condition and when should people seek treatment?
Rohan: I strongly recommend against self-diagnosis and self-treatment because depression, including SAD, is a serious mental health problem. If you struggle with the changing seasons, experience some of the symptoms mentioned above, have difficulty functioning at school or work or if your symptoms interfere with your ability to interact with your family or others during the winter months, you should talk to your doctor about a referral to a psychologist or find a psychologist yourself.
The most widely used and extensively investigated treatment for SAD is light therapy (i.e., daily exposure to bright artificial light during the symptomatic months). Light therapy devices rigorously tested in clinical trials for SAD emit a controlled amount of cool, white fluorescent or full spectrum light with a built-in screen to filter out harmful ultraviolet rays. Clinical practice guidelines for SAD recommend daily use of light therapy each year from onset of the first symptom until the time in the spring when SAD symptoms would naturally resolve on their own. Compliance and consistency with the daily regimen are very important for benefits.
Light therapy devices are available without a prescription. However, because of the possible side effects, such as headache, eye strain and feeling agitated, and because the dose of the light needs to be adjusted to each patient, it is best to use light therapy under the supervision of a mental health provider with expertise in light therapy. Ask your psychologist if he or she feels comfortable supervising your light therapy and side effects or if they can refer you to someone with that expertise. When light therapy fails, antidepressant medications widely are regarded as the second line of treatment for SAD.
APA: You’re researching the best ways to treat SAD, including some work on comparing the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy with light therapy. What have you learned?
Rohan: For the past 12 years, my laboratory has been developing and testing a novel cognitive-behavioral therapy for SAD, with promising results. CBT is a type of talk therapy used and researched extensively for non-seasonal depression since the 1960s, but we are the first group to apply the treatment to SAD. We previously published a clinical trial for SAD that compared standard light therapy, CBT and the combination of CBT and light therapy to a control group on a wait list for treatment. We found that CBT, light therapy and combination treatment all improved depression more than the control group and all three of these methods showed large and comparable improvements in SAD symptoms across the 6 weeks of treatment in the winter. A year later, patients who had been treated solely with CBT generally had better outcomes than those who had been treated with light therapy alone. In contrast, the combined treatment group did not fare any better than the light therapy-only group the next winter.
These results suggest that treating someone initially with just CBT may be more effective in the long term. My lab is completing a study to find out if these results hold in a larger, more definitive study funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health. In that study, we treated 153 adults with SAD with either CBT or light therapy and we are following them for two consecutive winters to measure future symptom severity and SAD recurrences after treatment ends. I am most interested in long-term outcomes, meaning how to keep people well over time.
APA: How can cognitive-behavioral therapy be tailored for SAD?
Rohan: The CBT for SAD treatment we have been testing includes 12 structured sessions, delivered two times per week over 6 weeks in the winter. The sessions focus on developing skills to improve coping with the seasons. The therapist works with the patient to foster two types of skills: behavioral (doing) skills and cognitive (thinking) skills.
The behavioral skills involve identifying, scheduling and doing pleasurable, engaging activities every day in the winter. Over time, these proactive behaviors are meant to counteract the down, lethargic mood and the tendency to give in to “hibernation” urges that are so common in SAD. The cognitive skills involve learning to identify and challenge negative thoughts when experiencing SAD symptoms. In our CBT program, we encourage patients to aggressively apply the skills they learn in CBT before symptoms start, typically very early in the fall or around the end of daylight savings time, to manage their moods and prevent slipping back into old patterns that contribute to depression. This “tool box” of skills is assumed to be important for long-term benefits after formal CBT with the therapist ends.
APA: Can people be cured of this disorder?
Rohan: SAD can be effectively treated but the status of the research in the field is unfortunately not at the point where we can say we have a “cure” for SAD. The good news is that research in the field shows effective treatments are available, including light therapy, medications and CBT. So there are options for people affected by SAD.
There is not a one-size-fits-all treatment approach. Different things work for different people. After finding a treatment or treatments that substantially improve acute SAD symptoms in the winter, it is important that the long-term treatment plan include specific steps to try to prevent the return of SAD, or lessen its impact in subsequent fall/winter seasons.
Dr. Kelly Rohan is an associate professor of psychology at the University of Vermont. Her area of interest is adult mood disorders with specialization in cognitive-behavioral therapy and theory of depression and SAD. Her most recent project is a National Institutes of Mental Health-funded clinical trial comparing SAD patients who were treated with light therapy to those treated with cognitive-behavioral therapy.
(Used with permission from the American Psychological Association.)
Seasonal Affective Disorder Sufferers Have More than just the Winter Blueshttp://ehstoday.com/health/seasonal-affective-disorder-sufferers-have-more-just-winter-blueshttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today

“Body language: Without saying a word, it can say so much … like someone is having a stroke. Know the sudden signs.” So begins a new public service announcement that encourages Americans to recognize the signs of stroke by using the acronym F.A.S.T. – face drooping, arm weakness, speech difficulty and time to call 9-1-1.
According to the American Stroke Association (ASA), stroke, which occurs when a blood vessel that carries oxygen and nutrients to the brain is either blocked by a clot or bursts, is the No. 4 cause of death and a leading cause of disability in the United States. A stroke occurs in the United States every 40 seconds, but Ad Council research shows that 28 percent of Americans would not recognize the signs.
ASA and the American Heart Association (AHA) have joined with the Ad Council to launch their first national, multimedia public service campaign to raise awareness about F.A.S.T., an acronym for recognizing and responding to the sudden warning signs of stroke. F.A.S.T. stands for:
Face Drooping – Does one side of the face droop or is it numb? Ask the person to smile to see.
Arm Weakness – Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
Speech Difficulty – Is speech slurred? Is he or she unable to speak or hard to understand? Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence, like “the sky is blue.” Is the sentence repeated correctly?
Time to call 9-1-1 – If the person shows any of these symptoms, even if the symptoms go away, call 9-1-1 and get him or her to the hospital immediately.
When it comes to stroke, time is critical. F.A.S.T. can help people to spot a stroke quickly, so that they can get medical help as soon as possible. Time is critical when a stroke occurs, so getting to the hospital quickly could help reduce disability and death from stroke.
“We are all fluent in body language,” said Rob Baiocco, executive vice president, executive creative director of Grey New York. “We speak it all day, every day. We want to add the language of stroke to everyone’s vocabulary, so they can spot one fast, and help save a life.”
View the campaign’s F.A.S.T. infographic and the public service video announcements online. For additional information, visit http://www.strokeassociation.org/STROKEORG.
Act F.A.S.T. to Learn the Language of Strokehttp://ehstoday.com/health/act-fast-learn-language-strokehttp://ehstoday.com/rss.xmlEHS Today